The Wolf & The Moon
by Tsharp101
Summary: A Thief and an Insomniac find themselves wrapped up in the wonderful world of Remnant. Hilarity and drama ensues. (OC story)
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Well hello there random stranger! And thank you for clicking on my humble fan fiction :)**_

 _ **I'm not going to say much in this author's note, as you should really be reading the story itself, but it should be stated that I'm relatively new writing/storytelling and so a lot of what you're going to read is going be my first uneasy steps as an author. This probably isn't selling the fic any... but I wanted to be honest.**_

 _ **Now with all that said n done. Please feel free to start scrolling down.**_

* * *

 **Chapter 1:**

 **The Thief**

"-and that's why you lot are staying here, Torchwick and Juniors crew will break in, start grabbing stuff, then we'll drive around and start loading crates."

Eir tried her best to listen to one of the crew leaders. The guy had a face like a bucket of smashed crabs, which was reassuring because it meant that he actually had seen action, but also concerning because it meant he had fucked up consistently over his time in the underground.

She was currently perching herself on the back of an unmarked van. One of two they would be using to drive their haul away tonight. The idea was that two crews would be used in this operation; One being Juniors thugs to steal the goods and rough up the place, and the other a set of nobody's to make sure said goods are safely whisked away in the dead of night. The place in question was a shop called From Dust Till dawn. Aptly named she supposed.

Eir shifted and leant her head on her hands. No longer caring for the man's words. The rest of the hired help stood around listened. They were a varied bunch, some human, some Faunus like herself, some looking like they had seen their fair share of hard times.

 _I know the feeling…_ She thought numbly in her boredom.

She wasn't exactly here by choice, more out of order for Eir to leave her family for a time without worry meant that she had to find a large sum of money quick. Of course this was always the case, but this time it really really mattered. She had a few contacts in the city who had pointed her to this heist, her reward based of the size of the haul. Ten percent in fact. Which was generous considering she was just one of the random's needed to pull of the gig.

The group organizing the raid were hiring some additional muscle. She had done enough jobs like this to know that they were the disposable end of the criminal stick but Eir was a brilliant escapist when it counted and so she agreed regardless. Though she never would have imagined Roman Torchwick was the one leading the raid. Eir wasn't sure if she liked that or not. Especially if she was one of the expendables in this instance.

Her gaze wandered, looking back at the group.

She took a closer look at Junior's men with their black suits and red sun glasses. Despite the get up they were still thugs at the end of the day. It was an odd contrast with the getaway crew present, most were wearing casual clothing almost like civilians. At least that made them look inconspicuous.

At some point the crew leader had left, everyone else started going about their duties. Jumping off the vehicle Eir decided to go look busy and took a quick stroll around the area. The street was annoyingly well lit, though luckily someone had the guile to place the getaway vehicles in a dark alleyway. She kept to the street during her walk, trying to look like another civilian but in truth scouting out potential threats, making mental notes of possible escape routes if things went downhill. Admittedly there were too many pedestrians around for her liking. It was late, but not late enough.

All in all it was a nice night, it was rare that she visited the nicer end of town. Things over here were clean, polished, and functional. Almost beckoning in tourists and the like. Newcomers would probably think that all of vale was like this. But like inspecting a mirror, the closer you look the more imperfections you would find. Maybe it was the amount of years Eir spent of the street, maybe it was the tension of the job, but every alleyway and shop corner seemed to present a hidden agenda. Despite what the city council liked to think most shops worth a damn in this town were probably owned by some criminal group or another. Though that was probably true of any city.

She kept her stride, dodging the occasional drunk and richer townsfolk. Despite everything vale was a decent place to live, she would have preferred the sights and smells of Vacuo, though her birthplace was a distant memory now.

Eir couldn't help but eavesdrop on people going about their day. Disgruntled night shift workers mumbling about long hours, the random drunk, lovers quarrels, it was all entertainment to her. It was times like these where she was thankful for her well attuned ears, a useful trait from her wolf Faunus heritage. She smiled to herself, stuffing her hands into her pockets. At least out here she could keep herself amused. Seriously these people's problems were minuscule, almost laughably so. There was a lot of talk about cheating boyfriends and plans for the weekend but nothing about where to find their next meal or someplace safe to sleep.

Eventually her thoughts began to turn to the task at hand. Despite her attempts at distracting herself Eir couldn't help and think of what she was about to do, what she was about to risk. Today was either going to be the solution or the escalation of her problems.

Giving one last glance at the crowd she decided to loop back around to the vans. With any luck the crowd would stay on this end of the street, and even if people saw Roman and his goons they would disperse. Say what you like about Torchwick but that man gave people good cause to shy away. She continued to think about the operation during the walk back. The job would pay well. The only problem here is that the haul was dust, a theft not taken lightly in any city and was dealt with accordingly. Something that risked her chances of enrolment at beacon. But this had to happen in order to reach the late enrolment period.

After some time Eir made her back to the alleyway, it seemed the rest of the crew were about ready to get things started.

She sighed and looked up to the sky.

"Everything going to be fine" She said to no one in particular.

 _ **Not one hour later…**_

"Everything's fucked!" She shouted at the one of the crew members.

Another crack of a rifle roared throughout the street, and to Eirs amusement it was also accompanied by the sound of fireworks.

"What the hell do you mean?" The getaway driver yelled back.

Eir looked behind her, clinging to one of the dust hauls she had pilfered earlier, watching the lights dance on the pavement from the relative safety of the dim alleyway. Those were definitely fireworks…

The man cursed and motioned Eir to get what she had in the back of the van.

She was about to do just that before hesitating. Her street urchin experience warning her. With this much noise the cops would already be coming, and considering it was a dust raid an unmarked van would be exactly what they'd be looking for. She gave a quick glance around her, checking her surroundings for her fellow thieves. It seems everyone was either scrambling to get their loot or making an early escape. No one had noticed Eirs presence

 _Perfect._

Eir waited a few seconds to pass then slapped the side of the van to signal that her part of the cargo was on board. In actual fact the crate was still very much in her possession.

She looked down and inspected her loot, it was the refined labelled stuff. Expensive, which was good, but a bitch to sell on the black market.

 _How the hell do I get myself into these situations?_ She thought herself, reflecting on yet _another_ job gone wrong.

She was only a part of the clean-up crew, just there to help keep watch and help provide escort. This proved difficult considering a full-scale fight was happening right outside the place they were currently robbing, the police were probably already on their way and who's bright idea was it to be firing fireworks during a fricking heist!?

Her ears picked up faint sounds. Ones coming in from a few blocks away. Sirens.

 _Time to leave…_

She was about to do just that before hesitating, her ears picking up the sounds footsteps stomping up to the van.

"Hey!" A man's voice shouted in her direction

She turned around. It was crab bucket man. His eyes were focused on the crate in her hand.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he barked.

"Just, uhhh checking the goods…" She responded, opening up the crate and fumbling with its contents.

The crew leader started marching up to her, weapon in hand.

She closed the crate with a thud, brandishing one of the containers filled with Dust

"Yeah, looks good to me." She noted, pretending to inspect one of the canisters

With a loud bang Eir smacked the container off the side of the van, causing little wisps of energy to escape the now cracked container.

"Oh…never mind, this ones damaged."

The crew leader hesitated, his stride winding down to a few careful steps. His eyes still furious but with a tinge of apprehension. The man couldn't help but notice Eirs devious expression.

"Here, catch."

She threw the container in front of him, with a metallic clink it hit the cobble, the fissures in the container widened and more light began to escape its confines.

Eir didn't stick around to watch the light show, instead she bolted into a neighbouring alleyway, still cradling her loot.

With a flash and crack of an explosion a torrent of flames erupted where Eir had fled just a moment ago.

She couldn't help but supress a giggle at the chaos behind her. Explosions were always more entertaining when you knew that you were the one who caused them.

Eir didn't care for the crew leader, he was probably fine, minus some shrapnel. Hell if the guy was smart he would have done the same thing as Eir. It didn't make sense that he was angry, after all what was to be expected of hiring a thief? Though maybe he was just pissed that Eir could get away with some loot while he could only suffer the wrath of his employer. God knows that face didn't need any more disfiguring scars.

She kept zig zagging through alleyways, shaking off any possible pursers. The sounds of her feet making hard contact with the floor only added to the amount of noise in the air. The sounds of an aircraft were also mixed in. A police chopper probably.

Her run became a jog, she was a few blocks away from the scene but the cops would establish a perimeter soon. Eir found the quieter end of the street, most of the civilians started watching the ensuing chaos. No one seemed to notice the Faunus girl carrying the crate of dust.

 _I need to drop this somewhere…_

People were distracted but that didn't always mean you were safe, a lesson she learnt very early in life. If even one eye witness existed after this night it would probably mean the death of her plan to become a student at beacon. She found another nearby alleyway, judging by the nice layer of settled dirt this one probably saw little to no foot traffic. Eir checked both ends before dumping her loot underneath a nearby drainage grate. After putting some trash over the grate for good measure she promptly headed to an escape route she scouted earlier.

Eir continued along the pavement, she would pick up the crate tomorrow when things were quieter. For now she just had to try her best at acting inconspicuous.

Sirens flooded the neighbouring streets, those familiar tones cut straight through her, this wasn't the first job gone badly but there was too much riding on her not getting caught this time. After a few close calls Eir eventually got to the lower district level, a dead end by someone else's standards but not hers.

She unclipped her new tools from her belt. Two hybrid sickles by her own design, a requirement by certain hunting schools. Eir figured it may help her chances during enrolment.

She slapped the spines of the weapons together, the curved blades folded forwards and produced a small wire at each point, connecting to a notch on the main body of the handle. The handle itself curved slightly at the bottom providing a grip and trigger, forming the structure of a small crossbow. She placed a grapple bolt into its slot and fired upwards to the roof of the building.

The bolt clanged and gripped the lip of the roof. After a quick test pull she pulled the trigger and the grapple bolt started to coil and pull her upwards.

Here it was safe to ascend because of the adjacent buildings, anywhere else and she would have been clocked by an aircraft for sure. Eir held fast to the grip of her weapon as she was driven higher, upon reaching the ledge of the roof she clambered onto the buildings surface. The night's sky greeting her once more.

Decoupling the bolt Eir separated the crossbow back into its sickle counterparts, the mechanism producing a satisfying click as it reset itself. Damn she loved these things.

She took a few careful steps towards the other end of the building, getting a better view of the action. While surveying the damage it seemed that the police had already surrounded the area, the heist now becoming a crime scene rather than a job. In fact several of the disposable crew had been apprehended and stuffed into armoured vans. At least that was one problem solved. Angry accomplices were quite common when you fled jobs as regularly as Eir did. Oh well, no honour amongst thieves anyway.

Still keeping her gaze on the scene she searched for the police chopper, only to find another unmarked vehicle hovering above the chaos. A VTOL to be precise. Not only that but it was taking heavy fire, more specifically it was getting peppered with a hail of ice.

 _Is…is that a storm cloud?_ She thought, doing a double take.

It wasn't just ice, the VTOL was also returning fire with…well fire…

Eir simply stood there baffled. Someone's semblance she guessed, someone very skilled. But who the hell was casting their semblance so wholeheartedly in a popul-

Her train of thought crashed into a smouldering wreck upon seeing Glynda Goodwitch being responsible for the casting.

She faltered from the edge slightly, panic filling her limbs. Glynda Goodwitch…One of beacons top staff members…she was standing right there, _shit,_ wouldn't she see her up here?

Her mind raced, Goodwitch wasn't alone either, and it looked like there was also a girl brandishing a red scythe bigger than she was.

 _What in the actual name of fuck is going on?_

Her brain was still trying process what was happening, her feet however, were already moving. At least they knew she was still in danger.

She got the loot. That was all that mattered.

Head filled with questions and anxiety clinging to her chest, Eir fled the scene.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **Hope you enjoyed the first chapter :)**_

 _ **If you're wondering why Eir doesn't have a physical description in this chapter it's because I'm simply not going to show that just yet. I'm not hiding anything special it's just that I'm going to show it later. There's a reason for this, but for now just go ahead and pretend that Eir is actually a seven foot tall black man.**_

 _ **Criticism is welcomed and appreciated**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2:**

 **The Insomniac**

Lucian was many things. An insomniac… An aspiring huntsman…

"You idiot" Glynda continued her rant.

An idiot…But that didn't get him down, for today would be the day that he would have officially enrolled into beacon academy.

"You had been training all this time, and you just…Ugh!"

Well…that had been the plan anyway.

He was currently sitting in one of beacons staff rooms, more specifically Glynda's office. He was glad of the glass panelling sectioning it off from the rest of the faculty lounge, though that probably did little to stop her voice from carrying. God knows that women had a set of pipes on her.

"How many times have I said that you needed to prepare for the written examination, I reminded you on a daily basis!"

"I did prepare" Lucian argued "I did all that theory crap you wanted me to, grim studies, dust application, mathematics… even literacy damn it!"

"But nothing in regards to time keeping!" she parried.

She had a point there, admittedly he wasn't a morning person, though he felt a little confident when finally facing the exam. It's just that the mornings got him so confuddled. At one point he had started day dreaming, then apparently two hours had passed and the examination ended with Lucian written nothing but his name.

"Look, I'm sure I'll get it next time" He said, waving a dismissive hand and slouching further down into the chair. They had been talking for quite some time now.

Glynda stopped and gave the young man a look.

"You do understand that 'next time' means the next semester?"

"Whoa, wait, what?" Her statement snapped him out of his lull.

"You heard me," She moved to sit back in her chair, probably tired of pacing the room "You passed the practical examinations with flying colours which means you are allowed the chance to re-sit the examination next semester."

"The next semester…" He said blankly.

She laced her hands on the desk, taking another look at his failed paper then huffing. Aside from not answering a single question it seemed that Lucian even neglected to write his surname.

"Honestly…" She muttered, bringing up a holographic interface.

Lucian just sat there, numb. A whole semester. Almost a year…

 _I might actually have a problem…_

"Lucian."

Shaking himself out of his thoughts once more he hesitantly made eye contact with Glynda.

"How many years have you lived at beacon now?"

"You've already asked me that question" He muttered

"Answer me." She pressed

"Almost seven years…"

"And how many years have you trained at beacon?"

"Six years I guess…"

"Six years." She repeated "Six years and yet you continue this trend of indifference."

She waved away some of the holography, making her stern features more apparent.

"You have talent, you have true potential, but its times like these where I wonder if you actually care about what it is we do here."

"Of course I care."

"Then _prove it._ Prove to us that you have passion in your studies, that there is rhyme in your reason."

"Hey it's not my fault it was scheduled in the morning, you know what I'm like"

"That's beside the point!"

Glynda made a motion and brought up a document on the interface so that Lucian could see it. It appeared to be a record detailing his earlier years at beacon.

"Myself, doctor Oobleck, professor Port and Ozpin all agree that you have grown significantly in your time at beacon. And yet at the time where your combined efforts matter, you throw it all away."

She huffed again

"I just don't understand you sometimes…"

"I didn't 'throw it away' as you so delicately put it, you of all people know that I can get…distracted."

Goodwitch gave him a hard look. A look that said stop this line of arguing.

Lucian turned away, averting his eyes and looking out the nearby window. Beacons campus was always a lovely sight, but now it seemed bittersweet. Despite how long he had waited to become a student he wouldn't get to experience walking the grounds in uniform this year.

He sighed, then faced Glynda once again.

"Look" He started "Reschedule the next exam in the afternoon, I guarantee you I'll ace it."

"I already have." She said, taping away at a keyboard.

"With any luck we can create a team out of the transfer students we are receiving this year, additionally there should be others under similar circumstances."

Lucian grimaced internally, 'others' usually meant dropouts and trouble students. To his displeasure Lucian probably ranked among them now.

"Your examination will begin just before the new semester, at noon."

She gave one last tap on the keyboard before looking up at the would-be student.

"You are dismissed"

Lucian stood up to leave, he had wanted to say something but given her mood it was probably best if he just left quietly.

 _The next semester…_ That fact lingered at his mind, tugging at the back of thoughts.

"Lucian." Gylnda said.

He hesitated by the door.

"You have been training for years. So please, don't let a couple sheets of paper stand in the way of your pursuit to finally become a huntsmen."

After a pause he nodded, then opened the door to finally leave.

He made his way out the staff room. Some of the faculty gave him knowing looks, he knew them very well over his years in the academy and this was by no means his first trip to Glyndas office.

So yeah. An insomniac, an aspiring huntsmen, an idiot, and to top it all of he was going to be a bad student even before he had actually started attending lectures.

 _How do I get myself in to these situations…?_

 _ **A few minutes later…**_

Lucian decided to take a walk around beacon. At first it was an effort to clear his head but it just seemed to make his situation more apparent.

He strolled through the main hallways, passively eavesdropping on the classes going on. From the very end of the room Lucian could just about hear another one of Port's bombastic stories of heroism and what not. He smiled to himself, despite how enthusiastic that teacher was his students were probably bored out of their minds.

In a way couldn't help but envy them, hell if things had worked out he probably would have been in that class bored numb too.

Lucian sighed inwardly and turned a corner, leading to yet another corridor. From this end of the academy he could now here the faint ravings of Oobleck. Now the students in that class were probably having a difficult time catching up with him, let alone take notes. Professor port was monotonous at times, but at least he gave you the opportunity to write, Oobleck just seemed to go on forever, never giving a reprieve. His students were probably burning through notebooks with the vigour of an apprentice scholar.

Lucian hastened his stride, ruffling his white hair as if to dislodge thoughts. Everywhere just seemed to give him reminders of how he cocked up.

The whole situation was depressing, over his time in the academy he had made loads of friends, but eventually they would complete their training and leave. People like Neptune and Wukong were about the only ones he really knew anymore. And now with them starting their own training without him…well Lucian would be left behind once again.

He took pause at the corridor window, looking out a beacons courtyard once again. Lucian had to give it the groundskeepers, they always seemed to make the place look immaculate no matter the weather. Today was especially sunny, adding to the pristine look of the well-trimmed trees and freshly cut grass.

His eyes caught the glimpse of his own reflection in the glass. He focused his gaze. Studying his own features. He tussled his hair with a hand once again, it was often ruffled and wavy given his nocturnal habits. It wasn't always white, but after his youth he simply got grown accustomed to it. He made eye contact with himself, his own dark blue eyes starting back at him.

 _You screwed it up again Lucian…_

He let his eyes travel further down his frame and looked at his own attire. Lucian was wearing his good old blue hoodie with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, a small blue wrapping around his right wrist. Underneath he wore a white V neck top, and under that he wore a black vest that was visible in the split of the v neck itself. Lower down he wore simple black jeans and blue converse shoes.

He sighed. He should have been wearing a school uniform around now…

Lucian couldn't stand to be inside the walls any longer. Instead of finding the exit Lucian simply teleported through the glass window. A brief white flash being the only evidence of the transition. Suddenly the heat of the sun and the freshness in the air filled his senses. The stuffiness of the room completely evaporating.

Lucian inhaled deeply. Taking in atmosphere. This close to the water the air almost seemed to a carry a sort of beach vibe to it. If you closed your eyes you could pretend that you were someplace else entirely. That was a comforting thought.

He took one last glance at one of the gardens before moving somewhere well away from the academy's lecture halls.

Lucian walked along beacons main avenue, the one leading to the main skyway at beacon. It was relatively quiet at the moment which made the sheer expanse of beacons grounds all the more apparent. Lucian continued his lazy stride down to the end of the wide walkway, slowly but surely making his way to the academy perimeter.

He couldn't help but think of Neptune as the blue expanse came into view. To say the guy was hydrophobic was almost an understatement. Lucian remembered the time that he and Wukong had thrown him into a fountain as a prank. After some girlish screams and some flailing they had both discovered Neptune's fear of water the hard way.

Lucian smiled to himself, recalling the details of that day. His mind drifted to them.

To be honest Lucian was a little surprised when Sun had said that he had passed through. The guy barely did any theory and almost all practical stuff. Neptune on the other hand was almost a model student by comparison, though he never really cared for teachers. Given how strict Haven was Lucian couldn't blame him. Neptune had always said he had hated it over there, that everyone was always so stuffy…

It sucked, Wukong and Neptune had probably started classes around now, and here Lucian was just fluttering around the grounds like a lost paper plane.

He sighed once again. Lucian had hoped he could meet them when he finished a year of training like they would. Now he would officially start by the time they visited beacon for the Vytel festival.

Later in the month they would actually start making teams, a team that Lucian wasn't in.

 _Wait a sec…_

They had only just started their training…hell they were barely enrolled…

He stopped, an idea forming in his head

Wukong was so bored he had even joked that he would have changed schools at this point.

 _That's it…_

He could get the gang back together. Holy crap they could actually make an official team!

Well provided they could find a fourth person…But still!

Lucian smiled then immediately whipped out his scroll and started messaging his old friends. They would come. Sun was dying for new scenery as always and Neptune wouldn't turn away an offer to leave Haven.

The only thing to work out now was how enrolment was going to work. He would have to talk to another staff member. Hmm, Glynda might be an issue though, she was probably still mad at him. Maybe Ozpin was a better idea?

The insomniac quickly turned around. His once lazy stride turning into a determined power walk, heading straight for the tower.

 _Oh this is going to be good…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3:**

 **The stray**

Eir held the acceptance letter in her hand, numb.

"I…"

She scanned the writing again to be sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.

"I…Passed?"

Surely there was a mix up? That someone slipped and accidently put her name in the list of acceptance students…

She stood outside a small postal office located at the most eastern part of vales residential district, just at the foot of Beacon cliff. Eir wasn't the only potential student there either. The place was packed with teens, each one brandishing their own letters from Beacon. Some were happy, some looked depressed, and others simply looked scared to open them at all.

Eir looked back down to the sheet held in front of her.

It was silly really, this little slip of paper having so much power over her, its contents literally dictating Eir's future. A privilege given to no one expect this small envelope apparently.

 _I did it._

She looked around, almost wanting someone to correct her. Alas no such person existed.

 _I actually did it…_

Passing the late entrance exam for beacon was officially a success, much to Eirs amazement. In fact she was exactatic. Not even realising how much this meant to her until she already crossed a threshold.

She smiled and reached up to wipe something away from her eyes. The action gave her pause. Her cheeks were wet…she had been crying, not even sure when it happened but her eyes were definitely leaking fluids.

Eir felt a sudden flush of embarrassment. She wasn't the only soon to be student but from the looks she was getting she was one of the few with tears in her eyes. Eir had heard that people could cry from happiness but wasn't sure if that was actually was true or not until now.

Eir wiped them away with her sleeve, quickly tucking the paper into her pocket.

 _Come on, get it together. This is just the first step._ She told herself

After a quick talk with herself Eir took a quick look up at beacon cliff. Soon she would see just what was resting on up there.

She turned away from the sight and made her way into the market. This was the first step, now she had to prepare.

»»» § »»»

Sun Wukong had to give the captain credit, his ship arrived ahead of schedule. Not only that but the crew on the ship were relatively uninventive, barely anyone had checked the cargo bay during the journey. He stretched out, shaking of some sleep. The cargo bay was a little dark and dingy for his tastes but all things considered he had slept in worse places. It was lucky that the crew had been comprised of humans, down here the darkness actually helped him stay safe, and to find out the ship was containing fresh fruit no less...

 _Could my luck get any better?_ He thought whilst finishing off another banana and throwing it on the pile in the corner.

He shifted on one of the crates in the shipping container, the one he used as a makeshift seat. Over the course of the voyage the place was littered with trash and banana peels, but all in all Sun had actually made quite the cozy den for himself.

The sound of the ships horn caught his attention. It seems the vessel was properly moored to the docks now.

 _Time to make a move._

He jumped up from the crate, swiping one last banana as he left the cargo container. He would hate to be the guy to receive that shipment.

After some time the Faunus found himself on one of the upper decks. From some of the portholes he could make out Vales city port. It was a reassuring sight, Sun wasn't actually sure that this ship was heading directly to vale or not. Eventually he found himself distracted, practically abandoning any semblance of stealth and simply enjoying the change of scenery. It was quite the contrast compared to the dimly lit cargo bay.

Sun navigated through the crew deck, uncaring for the occasional looks he was getting from some off the crew. He didn't bother being as stealthy as he did when first embarking on the ship. In fact he was simply tired of skulking about the vessel in general. It had been awhile since he'd walked about with any freedom.

Besides it's not like it mattered now, he was already in Vale so who cares if his was caught-

"Hey you!"

 _That was quick…_

The Faunas simply turned around. Meeting two very irate looking sailors at the end of the hull.

"Who let you on-board?" One of them demanded

"I uh…"

He took out the banana he grabbed earlier

"Don't suppose I could bribe you guys with this?" He said, a faint hint of nervous laughter in his voice.

"Get him!"

The sailors ran toward Sun, one of them signalled for others to help with the chase.

"I'll take that as a no?" Wukong yelled, now running the opposite way through the hull of the ship. He tucked the banana back into his pocket for safe keeping.

He kept running, nimbly navigating the deck with an ease that would have made even the most acrobatic of pirates jealous. His ears picked up the sound of the of his pursuers footsteps slapping on the metal floor, it seemed they were losing the race pretty quickly.

With a quick shoulder charge Sun slapped open the hatches that lead to the outside of the ship. The hatch swung into another sailor as it opened. Sun actually felt a little guilty for that one but he kept running regardless.

Turning a corner he found himself taking in the scenery once again. The sights and smells of a city was always something to be savoured. Giving a quick scan he could see that the sailor's hadn't put up down the gang plank yet. Wukong would have to jump.

He hopped onto the edge of the ship's hull then turned around to meet the faces of the two disgruntled sailors for one last time.

"Thanks for the ride guys!"

With that Wukong leapt from the ship. His feet hit the wooden docks with a thud. Shortly after he took off into another run.

 _Vale…It's been awhile._

He eyed a nearby lamp post on the dock, a moment later he climbed his way to the top to get a better view of what would be his new home.

"You no good stowaway!" One of the sailors yelled at him.

"Hey, a 'no good stowaway' would've been caught! I'm a great stowaway!"

He finally proceeded to eat the banana he stole from earlier. Now was a good time to figure out his next move.

Sun had actually been to this spot in vale before, though it had undergone some changes over time. Happily munching his way through the fruit he started thinking about how long it had been since his last visit, and under similar circumstances as well…

He smiled to himself. Despite the years Sun was still his same old self. With any luck Neptune and Lucian would be too. Hmm, when was the last time he saw them last…?

Something was thrown at the faunas. Sun dodged it with ease, lazily looking down to a pair of cops. That was another familiar sight of vale actually.

"Hey, get down from there this instant."

Sun gave an equally familiar response. Tossing with expert precision the banana peel slapped into one of the detectives with a satisfying slap. Needless to say the guy was less than happy. Wukong couldn't help but give quick laugh as the man fumed, the cop's expression was priceless.

Sun vaulted through the air in a flip, then landed back onto the docks. The cops footsteps sounded on the hard wood, Wukong didn't give them time to gain on him.

 _Yeah…vale hasn't changed too much_. He thought whilst navigating towards the docks exit.

He ran up the nearest flight of stairs, finding them leading into the street. Ah, so he was in the residential area of Vale? Perfect.

He kept running, uncaring from the looks he was getting from the nearby pedestrians. One figure caught his attention though.

A girl with black hair and piercing yellow eyes, the dark and moody type by the looks of things…That was always fun. With any luck she was a student of beacon academy. She seemed to be hanging around with some of her friends but Wukong could care less about them.

Sun continued to regard her as he ran. The way she held herself…a cat Faunus no doubt. And who did she think she was fooling with that bow?

He gave her his trademark wink as he passed. The girl seemed to be taken aback slightly at the gesture. Her confused expression was adorable, almost picturesque. His smiled remained even after he passed her during the run. He would remember that face.

 _Beautiful and Faunus…I am lucky today…_

Eventually he found where the pier ended and the street began. Turning another corner he leapt upwards onto a nearby roof top. The cop's wouldn't be following him up here.

Sun gracefully climbed and clambered upwards until he met the top of one of the local stores, from here it was easier to see the expanse of the city.

Vale's buildings were much more tightly packed compared to Vacuo's, there would be plenty of escape routes to choose from. Plus the cops here were always pushovers anyway. He slowly stopped navigating the roof tops and went into lazily stroll. He regarded the city properly now. In all likelihood he was probably on the western side of the residential district.

 _Hmm, Lucian never said where he wanted to meet._

His ears caught the sound of a nearby door opening, he turned around to see a new pair of cops appear from the fire escape of a neighbouring roof.

"You think you're the only scumbag to try the roof trick!"

 _Huh... guess they weren't push overs after all._

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder, He braced to perform a quick jab to his pursuer, only to find it wasn't a cop.

His eyes met a pair of blue ones looking back at him.

"Fancy seeing you here." A familiarly funny accent greeted him.

In a flash the two of them vanished from sight.

»»» § »»»

Lucian teleported them both a couple times until they found a better roof top, safely away from the eyes of any police in the area. He let go of Wukongs shoulder and took a step back, regarding his old friend. Sun was rubbing his eyes from the transition, probably hasn't traveled like that for a while Lucian guessed.

Eventually Sun regarded Lucian with a slight pout.

"I had that handled" Sun said

"Of course."

There was a slight pause. Then they both smiled then smacked fists together.

"It's been too long" Lucian said.

"Damn straight! Do you have any idea how bored I was over in Mistral? Not only that but you and Nep promised to stay in touch every now and then. I haven't caught up with you guys in ages."

"Your one to talk, I didn't even get a postcard! Besides we tried, but you were never around when we tried to use the CCT. Do you know how much money that costs per call?"

"Psh" Wukong waved a hand

He didn't bother asking about his run in with cops, Lucian was used to teleporting them out of similar situations in the past, at some point Lucian had simply become a living escape plan whenever their antics bit them in the ass.

Sun gave a contented sigh.

"Well on the Bright side were together now." Lucian said

"Almost, we still gotta get Neptune. Then it will be just like old times, you know the three of us causing havoc in the streets?"

"Yeah, and thanks to you I think we're well on our way there." Lucian said, looking back at the disturbance sun had caused.

Wukong gave a dry laugh, then began pacing the rooftop, taking in the city sights.

"Sooo," Wukong began "Failed the entrance exam…"

"Don't even start mate."

He simply chuckled

"And here's me thinking I held the worst record for written assignments."

"Look I completed the exam now anyway. And I'll have you know that I passed it thank you very much."

"Remember to write your full name this time?"

Lucian simply grunted and stood near the edge of the rooftop, checking for anymore pursuers. He took note of the dock just under the horizon. Wukong just had to pick a time where the cops were on edge didn't he?

"When you said that you were taking a ship I didn't think it would be the marine variety." Lucian said, turning back around.

"Hey I like steam ships, I never get to travel like that with Neptune around."

"Fair point."

"Yeah, and maybe next time I'll actually be a passenger, though I gotta admit their cargo hold was pretty suspicious."

Lucian merely shook his head. He had missed Wukongs personality. There weren't many characters quite like Sun around. His old friend hadn't changed one bit. Lucian loved that fact.

"So how's beacon been treating you over the years?"

"Ah you know, same old."

"Glynda still…You know?"

"Stern as hell? Yeah."

"That could be fun to deal with."

"That's one way to put it. I know she wasn't exactly found of you when we first met."

"Hey that's your fault, you should know better to hide petty thieves you don't know. Besides it's been years, she's probably forgotten."

"Somehow I doubt that very much. You're uh…very unique individual"

"You were about to say something else weren't you?"

"Remarkable?"

"That's one way to put it…"

Lucian did a quick check of his scroll.

"So we got some time to kill. You want me to show you around the city?"

"Actually you wanna grab something to eat? I'm kinda hungry."

"Sounds like a plan. Bet you've had nothing decent to eat after that long voyage."

"Uh, yeah…barely anything really." He seemed to look away as he said it, Lucian didn't give his dubious look too much notice. Just another one of Suns shenanigans probably.

A police siren that was in the distance seemed to getting closer. Wukong gave Lucian a quick look.

"So uh, you mind teleporting us again?"

"On it."

Once again Lucian put a hand on Sun's shoulder. Less than a millisecond later they vanished from sight, the only trace being a flutter of light particles flickering out into the air.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **So it should be stated that Lucian does have a British accent. I would have liked to have shown this in the second chapter but I found it hard to write it in. Instead I just got someone from an outside perspective to take note of it, thus making it more a little more natural.**_

 _ **It will become clearer as the story progresses but for now I haven't drawn to much attention to it.**_


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4:**

 **Nightlife**

 _ **Two days later…**_

Tonight Lucian decided that the residential district would be the first part of a very enthusiastic walk.

The insomniac walked down one of the more 'touristy' parts of vale. Somewhere scenic to start things off. For people like him it was better to get up and about, a guy could only stare at the ceiling for so long. Besides, this outing had an objective this time…

He admired the holography as he walked down along the cobbled road, the light blue warding back the darkness of the otherwise dimly lit street. Admittedly he should be doing something else right now but that could wait a little longer, the night was still young…well by his standards it was young anyway.

Most shops and stalls were already closed, others were in the process of packing things down for the night. The street saw a bit of foot traffic but otherwise it would be a relatively quiet today. Lucian decided to take a quick detour to grab a drink at one of the nearby vending machines. As he got closer the fluorescent lighting of the machine got more intrusive, though he didn't mind, a person of his semblance wouldn't be bothered about light intensity.

He stood there for a time, debating his choice of drinks. Caffine did little for him but something sugary might make him a bit more animated. In all likelihood Lucian would need the extra energy tonight.

Before he could make his mind up a person tapped him from the side.

Lucian turned to find the familiar features of a Faunas with blonde wavy hair.

"We really gotta stop meeting like this" Wukong said, clutching a bunch of apples for some reason.

"Sun?"

"The one and only"

Lucian did a double take. Then quickly finished buying his drink.

"What are you up to?" Wukong asked.

"That's what I should be asking you, you know my nocturnal habits."

"Right yeah, I uh, thought I'd take a stroll around town, see what the nightlife's like."

"Right…" His gazed turned to the apples in Wukong arms

"Late night snack?"

Sun merely responded with a nervous chuckle.

Lucian shook his head then popped the tab on the can. Taking a quick sip.

"Say what you want man, fruits good for you. Better than that crap you're drinking."

"You don't like grape flavored soda?"

"Ugh not the soda just the grapes. There like little red balls of disgust, you know how many people touch those things before they get processed?"

"Can't be helped, people like grapes. You just don't know what you're missing."

"Oh please, I'd take apples over grapes any day." He said, shifting the bundle in his arms

"Right, and yet I don't see a single banana in the bushel you got there."

"Hey that's racist"

"An odd choice in fruit _and_ the race card." Lucian pointed out "You know if I didn't know any better…which is almost always, I would say that you're up to something."

"I uh…"

"Save it." Lucian said, chuckling. "I've got things to do. I'll see you around."

Wukong smiled and nodded. He seemed to appreciate Lucian's dismissal.

With that they both parted ways.

The insomniac took another sip of his soda before moving back out into the darker portions of the street.

 _Right then…_ He thought, getting out his scroll and checking the location marked on his map.

 _Time to get to work._

 _ **A few minutes later…**_

 _The docklands…_ Lucian mused

He stepped into the shipping area, thankful for the many containers covering his entrance. The air had a weird mix of grease and seawater and the atmosphere here was dingy at best, the added darkness of night didn't help much either. Lucian did a quick scan of the area before continuing further. The place wasn't exactly rough but it wasn't somewhere you would to go on a midnight stroll either, perfect for an arms deal in his estimation.

Eventually Lucian navigated himself to the top of a shipping container, mindful to stick to the shadows, either for the worry of disgruntled dockworkers or otherwise.

The muted sound of his shoes on steel sounded as he traversed the containers. All in all the place looked rather dull at the moment.

Lucian didn't mind that Ozpin sent him on these little errands but sometimes he wondered if Ozpin actually had a job for him to do or it was just a way to keep Lucian busy. Knowing that man it was probably both.

These days his outings became a bit more frequent. Usually Lucian would find trouble on his own but now his headmaster actually had him actively looking for it this year. This time he was told to do a little reconnaissance along the northern docks. Keep an eye on the nightlife. Those were Ozpins exact words. Lucian knew that what he really meant was; I'm expecting less than reputable people at the northern docks and I want you to find them.

Though he could stand to be a bit more specific, the northern docklands literally stretched throughout half the city.

Lucian pulled his hood closer, checking his scroll. It was getting close to midnight which meant the start of what was going to be another long morning spent fluttering around the city.

In all likelihood it was Torchprick up to his usual games. The guy seemed to have a penchant on causing havoc in the city. At least there was no one around. From that dust shop that got wrecked a few weeks ago and countless other instances Lucian knew all too well that roman cared as much about collateral as he did for inconspicuous clothing.

He sat himself down on the corner of the shipping container, giving the occasional glance around the area. The place was dead, but Lucian decided to linger a little longer before checking someplace else.

His thoughts began to wander as time went on. His time for enrollment wasn't far off now and Wukong was already in the city. It wouldn't be too long until they could officially start a team together with Neptune in fact. Though his arrival would come a few days from now judging by the messages they exchanged.

Lucian stood up, stretching out. Technically speaking he had actually covered the entirety of the northern dock during his scouting. That spot on the map probably another false lead. Lucian wasn't surprised, this wasn't his first wasted evening chasing up potential threats in the city.

 _Guess it was bad intel…_

A familiar crack of a firework echoed from the opposite end of the docklands. Lucian quickly moved across to a nearby platform, gazing over at the source of the commotion. Faint particles of smoke seemed to be rising upwards just east of him.

 _Well..._ He thought, falling into a run.

 _Maybe tonight wouldn't be boring after all._

»»» »»»

Lucian found himself a vantage point on top of a crane, from here he could see that his intel was indeed true, minus the location. The white fang had shown up to steal items from the shipping yard and had appeared to have come in force.

He shifted from the cranes railing to get a better view. They looked organised, and had even procured some serious hardware for the job. Odds were that this wasn't the only shipment that they were planning to steal tonight.

He spared a glance for one of the members. A red wolf logo with a claw mark slashed against it, no doubt about it. That was them all right.

Their presence was worrying, Lucian was expecting a criminal faction of sorts but the White fang?

He took out his Scroll and proceed to start a video feed. Beginning his second objective. Hopefully Ozpin would make sense of this.

Lucian looked further, trying to pin point the cause for the chaos. There he could see a lone fighter taking on members of the white fang, and Torchprick of all people.

It looked like a girl, Raven haired, lithe figure, she seemed almost familiar. Wasn't she a first year at beacon? He started paying more attention to the fight and less attention to his scroll. She was good, but outnumbered.

The girl continued to evade Romans barrage of fireworks with deft movements. Eventually she got to her feet and bolted around a shipping container to get out of his eye line. Roman began to walk around the corner of the container before hesitating, picking what appeared to be a banana peel off his hat then looking up. His gaze seemed to focus on an all too familiar Faunus.

"Oh for god's sake…" Lucian muttered under his breath.

Wukong jumped downwards from one of the shipping containers and delivered a solid kick into Romans head, jumping of the crime lord in the same action and rolling out onto the floor.

Lucian could only guess by the look he gave Torchprick that he said some choice words. Whatever they were Roman didn't seemed too phased by them.

One by one members of the White Fang dropped from VTOL's that were circling above, each one landing on the dockland and encircling him. Wukong shortly found himself surrounded.

Lucian shifted slightly, debating to draw the weapons from his back and joining the fray.

His friend instantly went into action, combating his enemy's with quick unarmed attacks. Despite the numbers Wukong took them out with ease. Lucian continued to watch Wukong's display of ass kicking, his staff now fully extended and pounding skulls. It was nice to know his skills had gotten even better over the years.

 _Stroll around town my ass…_

After a quick display of skill Sun dealt with one last White Fang member, leaving him and roman.

The bowler hat enthusiast took a cheap shot at his foe at the faunas in front of him, Sun quickly blocked with a simple spin of his staff.

Suddenly the girl from earlier vaulted from the shadows and engaged Roman, proceeding to attack the man with a series of quick slices from her blades.

Eventually Sun also joined the fray, becoming a joint effort. The two were quite the pair.

The fight went on for a time, and though it pained Lucian to admit it, Roman was no slouch when it came to fighting. Despite his nimble opponents he was holding them off quite well.

After a significant display of skill by both parties the pair managed to overpower roman. The girl even managed to send him flying to the ground.

For a moment it looked like they had him but Torchprick was a tenacious bastard. He took a shot at a nearby crane wire holding a container above them. A colorful explosion later and the container descended onto the pair.

Wukong managed to roll away from the danger, the action caused him to stumble onto the floor. Roman took the moment to line up a shot pointing a cane directly at the faunas. Lucian stood up. This engagement was starting to get messy.

Someone shouted from somewhere. Once again Roman seemed to find himself distracted

Torchprick said something and looked up, Lucian tracked his gaze towards the roof of a nearby building. It seemed another pair had come to see the action tonight. Another first year brandishing scythe and a ginger girl he didn't recognize.

The pair on the rooftop seemed to converse for a moment. That was a mistake.

A firework loosed by Torchprick struck the girl down, Lucian reached a gloved hand up to draw weapons, only to find that once again his assistance may not be necessary.

The ginger girl from the rooftop jumped down, a horde of blade also following close by. She hit the ground with a solid impact, instantly engaging the White Fang reinforcements with startling efficiency.

 _Well, this is certainly turning into a memorable night…_

Lucian continued to record the chaos on his scroll. He looked out for Wukong and his raven haired companion, they seemed to be fleeing the scene. Good.

A group of VTOL's flew overhead. That didn't seemed to bother the girl. She vaulted backwards. Her blades forming a kind of circle, each one spinning parallel with its counterparts. A green kind of energy started collecting in the middle of her arsenal. The girl seemed to brace herself, as if preparing for recoil.

The green energy condensed then shot out in a clean line of light. The beam divided and cut down three of the machines with ease, the VTOL's seemed to split apart from such a clean cut. Lucian watched one of them crash into the water. He could only imagine the amount of power that would have been required to do that so effortlessly.

 _Bloody hell…_

She wasn't done either, in the commotion one last VTOL managed to grab one of the containers of dust. Her blades smacked into its hull. The vehicle seemed unable to move properly now, its engines seemed to strain against something. Lucian continued to watch in bafflement. The girl started walking backwards and at the same time the aircraft seemed loose altitude.

He continued to watch the small girl pull the VTOL down with astonishing ease. With one last pulling motion the aircraft was yanked into the ground below it, crashing into the docklands. The resulting crash produced one hell of an explosion, causing containers to spill goods all over the docks. Luckily the Dust had been packed away properly, god knows how much bigger the explosion would have been if that wasn't the case.

Lucian continued to stay perched on the crane, making sure to get everything on his scroll. He was glad of the distance now.

 _I know Oz said that he was expecting trouble, but what exactly did he want me to find tonight…_

His gaze wandered back to the ginger girl, she seemed to be looking up at something.

 _Shit. Where did T.P go?_

He scanned the horizon. A VTOL flew off in the distance

"Ah bollocks…" He muttered.

Once again roman had managed to wiggle his way out of another crime gone wrong. Today's incident would just be another note in his criminal record. The guy probably took pride in being Vales most wanted at this point.

As the minutes went by the initial chaos seemed to wind down. The police had finally made their way to docks and to no one's surprise they naturally were late to the scene. Lucian wasn't sure if Torchprick was infamous because he was good at what he does or perhaps due to the incompetence of Vales police department.

He let his video linger for a little longer. Getting the details of the wreckage. The damage was probably going to amount to an astronomical amount of Lien.

More first year students came, probably a team by the looks of things. He decided to pan the camera around to get them in shot. Being thorough never hurt, plus Ozpin would probably want to know absolutely everyone involved tonight.

He watched Wukong sit with the new group. He seemed somewhat familiar with them, or at least with that dark haired girl. Maybe she was the reason Sun was out so late?

Lucian pulled his hood closer and stood up. He closed down his scroll and stuffed into his pocket. His business was concluded here, but that didn't mean things were done. An insomniac never let a night go to waste…

After all, things had just gotten started.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **While making this chapter I found out that writing a small action sequence is a bit difficult from an observer's perspective. I like to think it was passable, but looking back I'd be tempted to change a few things.**_

 _ **Side note:**_ _ **Im still working out how the document manger stuff works and battling with the edit function at the moment. If you find the spacing in my writing a bit weird thats probably why.**_

 _ **As always feel free to critique to your hearts content.**_


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5:**

 **The Hopeless Romantic**

Beacon was a funny place, more specifically the courtyards Lucian thought whilst passing through the influx of new faces alongside Wukong.

There were times like during class where you wouldn't see a single student on its grounds. But there were other times such as lunch where there would be so many people about it was almost hard to believe that beacon could actually contain all those people.

Today was a lot busier than the usual dinner rush.

Lucian looked out towards the crowd, hundreds upon hundreds of visitors walked and conversed on what used to be a relatively quiet campus. All of which were arriving for the Vytel festival tournament. Without any context this could have easily looked like the fallout after a concert.

"Can't say I've seen this place so busy before" Lucian mused, carefully stepping out of peoples way.

"What did you expect?" Wukong raised his voice little to make sure Lucian could hear him over the crowd. "Vales hosting the Vytel tournament this year, the 40th anniversary at that!"

The Vytel tournament…

With any luck their fresh team should be eligible to compete in the tournament, though they would have to pass the trials first, but that would be a bridge to cross at a later date.

The pair continued moving deeper into the crowd. Walking becoming increasingly difficult with each step.

Lucian scanned the crowd again, most of the people here were groups of teams from other academies.

He caught Wukong looking at him with that devious grin of his

"What?"

"What do you mean what? Can't you see what's happening?"

"Yeah" Lucian shuffled out of someone's way. "I'm getting my feet trod on by what can only be described as a metric fuck ton of people."

"Come on man think about it, the moment we can find Neptune we can actually start this whole team thing!"

A team…After all these years of training it had only just occurred to him.

Wukong was right. It was actually happening.

Lucian found himself grinning. Wukong chuckled in response. The two pressed on, almost a glacial pace.

There were all sorts of transfer students here, with each school with its own unique uniform. Haven with its black crisp uniforms and grey trimmings. Almost a complete opposite to atlas academy with their white sleeved shirts. Then there was Shade academy's clothing, or lack there off. They could either be students or civilians from an outside perspective, or perhaps it was actually a mix of both? Beacons campus was also playing host for several of the city attractions now that Lucian thought about it.

"So here's a question" Lucian said

"Yeah?"

"How do we find him?"

They both stopped and looked at the expanse of people.

"Um…"

To say beacons skyway was busy was an understatement. The place was absolutely packed with people. Airships flew to and from each landing pad, and those airships were only bringing in even more in people in as the day went on.

"He said he was around here right?" Lucian said, checking his scroll. "But where exactly does 'here' mean…"

He continued looking over some messages he had been exchanging with Neptune. Meanwhile his Faunus companion seemed to be hatching a plan.

"I got an idea." Wukong said, moving over to one of the nearby light poles. He then proceed to start climbing upwards for a decent vantage point.

Lucian stuffed his scroll back into his pocket and glanced up, uncaring for the looks they were getting from the crowd.

"See anything?" He asked

"Nope"

"Come on how many people have blue hair."

"You'd be surprised…"

He watched Wukong bring his hand up to shield his eyes from the midday sun, eventually he stopped looking around and seemed to focus on something.

"I think I see him"

"Really? Where?" Lucian asked, looking back into the crowd.

"Take a guess…"

The Faunus jumped back down onto the pavement with a thud. He started heading into the crowd and motioned for Lucian to follow. The pair once again began to make their way through the crowd, this far into the skyway their walk became a kind of odd shuffle. Wukong suddenly stopped, Lucian bumped into him slightly as a result.

"Hey…"

Eventually the crowd parted enough to see why his friend had stopped.

He spied a familiar blue haired figure chatting with a bunch of girls.

 _Typical…_

He gave Wukong a knowing look. Leave it to Neptune to instantly prioritise the pursuit of yet another love interest instead of finding his old friends.

Neptune currently had his back to them. His attention focused on the women in front of him. After some sort of parting comment that made one of the girls blush he started walking away. A small scrap of paper in his hands, the girls number at a guess.

He turned around then paused. His eyes widening on the pair just a few paces away from him. He seemed to do a double take before settling his eyes on Lucian.

"Lucian you sleep deprived psychopath!" Neptune exclaimed, jogging over, the girl's number quickly forgotten.

"Neptune you blue haired Idiot!" Lucian replied.

The two clutched hands then came in close for a quick man hug, there free hands patting each other on the back.

"I haven't seen you in years!"

"Likewise mate" Lucian smiled, then gestured to the girls he had just left "Still a hopeless romantic I see"

"Wouldn't say hopeless…" He said, turning back around and giving the girls one last wink before moving off with his friends.

"Nice to see you too." Wukong said, almost pouting.

"Hey come on, we saw each other few weeks ago. I thought we were gonna travel together until you decided to take a sea ship of all things."

"I had uhh…schedule conflict. Couldn't be helped."

"Right."

"Anyway it doesn't matter, we're all here now." He said, resting his hands on the back of his head. Smiling ever contently "This is gonna be great. Sun, Neptune, Lucian, and…"

He found himself stalling on that last part.

"Hey who's are fourth?"

"That's…a good question actually." Lucian responded

"You mean we still don't know?" Neptune said

"Uh, yeah..."

"So when are we going to find out?"

"I'm going to pester Ozpin in a few hours, we'll be meeting with him later to actually make a team." Lucian said.

"Say that last part again."

"Were gonna meet with Ozpin later-"

"No, shorter" Neptune interjected.

"Make a team?"

"Ahhh…" Neptune seemed to savour the words "sounds good doesn't it?"

Lucian paused, thinking it all over once again. This was it, this was the start of everything

"Yeah…" Lucian said in quieter tone "Yeah it does."

The three of them continued to walk back into Beacon itself. At least they were out anyway from the crowd now.

"Here's a thought. What do you think our team will be called?" Neptune said.

"I dunno, guess it depends on that fourth person." Wukong replied.

"Do you think they'll be any good? I mean most of those who aren't already in teams tend to be the ones who failed the first exam. Like Lucian"

"Oi"

"But seriously. What if the guy we get is just some random that wandered his way into the city. What if he's crap at fighting…" Neptune's train of thought seemed to shift tracks as he spoke "Hey the teams here are co ed right?"

"Don't do that" Lucian grunted.

"Don't do what?"

"If it turns out it's a girl you can't flirt with her!" Sun added

"And why not?"

"We're not going through what happened with your last break up again. Imagine what would happen if that crap happened with our teammate?"

"I'll have you know that me and Celeste patched it all up in the end, we've even started talking again. Hmm, I heard she was visiting vale this year now that I think about it…"

"Ugh. You're hopeless." Lucian grumbled

"Look don't worry about it. If our new teammate is anything like the students at beacon we should be golden." Wukong said

"He's got a point actually. Some of these guys are pretty good."

"Oh! Let me tell you what I was doing last night."

With that Wukong began to talk about the chaos in had participated during the docklands dust raid. Lucian's mind wandered, he had already heard the story. He never did get to talk to Ozpin about what happened that night. Though from the sound of things Beacon's headmaster was keeping a closer eye on the city these days. Lucian would have to pester him later about that. He shook of his thoughts and turned his attention back to their conversation.

"Huh, man that's harsh." Neptune said.

"So then we were fighting side by side, and she was super-fast and I threw a banana at the guy, which sounds gross but it was awesome."

"Nice" Neptune continued indulging his friend.

"Right? And the best part is, she's a faunas." He quickly covered his mouth upon realising what he had just said. "But that's a secret. Okay?"

"Got it."

"And not an I'm gonna talk to Lucian the second son turns his back secret, I'm talking secret secret"

"Whoa, chill out man I got it" Neptune assured him. "I got it."

"You better."

"Psh"

"I just don't wanna screw this up, you know? The people here are the coolest, no offense to you guys."

"None taken" Lucian chimed in.

Wukong seemed to pause just outside the cafeteria entrance. By the sounds of things lunch was a bit livelier than usual today.

"Okay their just in here. I'm really excited for you to meet them so, be cool okay?" He eyed the pair as he said it. "Your gonna be cool right?"

"Dude…" Neptune crossed his arms, Lucian stuffed his hands into his pockets, pressing against each other's backs. A pose tantalizing any photographer.

"Good point" Wukong observed.

They opened the doors.

What lay inside could only be described as the most chaotic food fight that the world had ever seen.

Baguettes, sandwiches, sword fish, melons, no food stuff was exempt from the havoc that ensued before them. Lucian and Neptune looked on in bewilderment. It looked like these were the students from the other day. They seemed to be battling another group using just about anything they could get their hands on.

Who knew that the tensile strength of a melon was so high?

Lucian turned back to Wukong. He seemed to marvelling at the display of the groups antics.

 _These were the people you wanted us to meet…?_

Sun always found odd company, Lucian included, but this was a bit extreme.

He watched the chaos continue. Food fight was probably a very loose term considering the hole in the cafeteria ceiling.

Lucian and Neptune looked on in amazement as one of the girls collided with a pillar, causing it to shatter. A red caped student came to the rescue just before the debris crushed her, albeit a bit dramatically.

More students fought in the background, the resulting chaos even managed to score a hit or two on the onlookers. Neptune even got slapped by at fish as it was used a makeshift projectile.

After a while the chaos continued on but the tides of battle shifted. The group using the cafeteria tables as a makeshift fort were slowly becoming the victors. That's when the red caped student seemed to have had enough.

She took off at an astounding speed. So much so that the surrounding junk was pulled with her during the travel. She passed by her adversaries along the way, they too were pulled into the vortex left in the wake of the student.

The girl reached the end of the room, braking suddenly, the change of air pressure cracking the wall behind. Her enemies were pinned against it a moment later.

The whirlwind of foodstuffs kept on coming. The red capped student quickly jumped up high to avoid the oncoming slaughter.

The resulting collection of trash hurled itself onto the poor students. Grape soda, bits of melon, mustard, ketchup, the poor students were crushed against the onslaught of material. Thus putting a very colourful climax to the chaos.

They seemed to be stuck for a little while before finally dropping to the floor with a sicking squelch.

"I love these guys" Sun said.

Lucian and Neptune turned to give him a very disgruntled look, drips of soda and food dripping from their angered features.

Before they could speak the doors slammed open. Glynda stomped through to the scene, her face like a storm.

She stopped just short of the mess. With a quick wave of her crop the room hummed with a kind of energy, less than a moment later the fallout from the fight started re organized itself in its previous tidy state.

Lucian looked over to see his friend's reaction. They seemed to be in awe of display of semblance in front of them, though Lucian was less amused. He had seen her use that trick plenty of times. It was a good thing she could do that now that he thought about it. If she couldn't, Lucian could only imagine the cost of repairing damages normally. God knows that student related damages were pretty common in Beacon.

At some point Ozpin had entered the room. Probably to inspect the chaos as well. He talked with Glynda for a time. Lucian shifted to regard his clothing, trying to wring some grape juice out from his hoodie. From the corner of his eye his could see Neptune giving Wukong quite the glare. The Faunus simply stood and gave a nervous chuckle.

The headmaster walked past them after he talked with Glynda, his cane softly thudding against the floor.

"I'll see you three in my office." He regarded their clothing for a moment. "After you freshen up of course."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6:**

 **Team LENS**

"Never thought I'd see you in a library. Like ever…" Lucian said

"Yeah well today's an exception." Wukong replied

Sun, Lucian and Neptune started climbing up the stairs to the upper portion of beacons main library. The place was massive, so large in fact that it was classified as one of Vales main information centres. If you were looking for a specific book, odds are it was here.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? No offense to your new friends but I only brought so many changes of clothes with me." Neptune said

"Don't worry about it, this is a library, no chance of a food fight here." He scratched his head slightly. "Probably…"

Eventually they finished climbing the stairs and found themselves on the top floor. They walked for a bit, apparently heading to wherever Sun said his new friends were sitting. After a short moment they found a familiar looking group sat down around a table, this time with considerably less chaos than before.

Sun was the first one to approach them

"Sup losers" He said, throwing up a hand.

"Hey Sun" One of the girls greeted.

"Ruby, Yang, Blake, Ice queen."

"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" The ice queen said. Lucian was fairly sure that was Weiss Schnee. Fancy seeing her here.

"I never got a chance to formally introduce you to my old friends"

"Uh, aren't libraries for reading?" Neptune said.

"Thank you!" A black haired student exclaimed at the back. It seems they were actually studying compared to these guys. His sudden exclamation seemed to wake up the ginger haired girl that was snoozing next to him.

"Shut up, don't be a nerd."

"Ah pup pup, Intellectual, okay? Thank you." He dismissed Sun and faced the group in front of him. "I'm Neptune"

"Lucian." Lucian added, giving a quick wave of his hand.

"So Neptune where are you from?" The white haired girl asked.

"Haven, and I don't believe I caught your name, snow angel."

And just like that, Neptune started to work his magic. Seriously it was like the guy never had an off switch…

"Um, I'm Weiss."

"Are you kidding me?" An armoured clad blonde piped up in the back. It seems Lucian wasn't the only one tired of Neptune's usual antics.

"Pleasure to meet you." Neptune said.

Lucian turned his attention somewhere else. Wukong did the same.

"I never took you as the board game playing type." He said to Blake

"Right, well," She stood up to leave, pushing Sun away slightly "I think I'm done playing actually. I'll see you guys later."

With that the raven haired girl quickly left.

Wukong turned back to the group and simply shrugged to her sudden departure.

"Women…" The ginger girl said while throwing up her hands.

Lucian spared at glance at the Faunus girl as she walked away.

Blake, so that was the girl was fighting at the docks. Sun said she was a bit moody at times but that was a bit much.

There was a short awkward pause. Yang was the first to try and break the silence.

"So uh, we got spot open now. One of you want to take Blake's place?"

"Yeah su-"

"Dibs!" Neptune declared, interrupting Lucian and quickly taking the empty seat.

 _Damn it_

Neptune snatched up the cards and gave a quick look to Blake's progress on the board. By the looks of things she didn't do too much yet.

"You guys want to reset the game?" Ruby said.

"Nah, it's cool." Neptune responded. Placing down a card as if issuing a challenge.

"All right. Don't think we'll go easy on you." Yang said, responding to Neptune's move.

Lucian watched Neptune's eyes scan the board and his cards. These girls had no idea who they were dealing with.

"Fair warning, Neptune's pretty good." Lucian said.

"We'll see about that." Ruby said coolly.

The game continued for about a minute before it reached its inevitable end. Neptune obviously being the winner. His opponents seemed to be in a state of disbelief.

"T-that was just a practice match." Yang started. "This time I won't go easy."

A second game started. This time Weiss had lost her kingdom almost instantly. It was kind of worrying considering her stature.

Another minute went by, and once again it looked like Neptune was close to winning the game. The two remaining girls seemed to look at each other with a knowing look.

"Ruby, let's call a truce." Yang said

"Agreed." Ruby nodded.

Despite the games rules they combined forces, though it didn't seem to matter to Neptune.

After a few turns Ruby's kingdom was also lost. Despite of the sudden alliance. Yang became the last girl standing.

"Nooo…" Ruby whined. Her shoulders slumped and her head quickly rested on the table in defeat. Weiss placed a hand on her shoulder as if to console her.

Neptune just seemed to give a kind of subtle grin at the misery he caused. Yang herself tried to stay resolute but there was noticeable apprehension in her movements. She seemed to have trouble debating her next move.

Lucian took a quick look at the board.

 _Hmm, another anti air fleet_ …

Seems Neptune was going ham in this game. He shuffled a bit closer to yang.

"Ahem" Lucian subtly gestured to the Beowolf pack card. They would be killed quickly but it would disrupt Neptune's next attack. The girl seemed to ponder for a moment then nodded in silent appreciation.

She began her counter offensive. After a few changes to the board it appeared that the move had countered Neptune's advance slightly.

"There's no need to be subtle," He said, looking up from his cards "Two people or not I've never lost a game."

"Hmph, fine." Lucian grabbed a nearby chair and sat next yang.

The battle lasted a bit longer this time. Lucians added input seemed to help but it still felt like an act of attrition. In a few more turns Yang's kingdom would be claimed. After some deliberation the two of them agreed on one last desperate move.

In one quick motion another card hit the board.

Neptune seemed to hesitate for a moment.

"Huh, wasn't expecting that…" He muttered, rubbing his chin.

Yang and Lucian gave each other a swift a high five. For a fleeting moment there seemed to be a glimmer hope.

"Nah, only joking" Neptune suddenly said, his concerned demeanour quickly evaporating and shifting into a smirk. "Trap card."

He flipped over the card that would ensure their demise. A king Taijitu to be precise.

Lucian and Yang looked at the card, dejected. Neptune's action had just foiled their last remaining counter offensive.

"Oh come on!" Yang cried.

Lucian slumped back in his chair. His efforts wasted.

"And that's game." Neptune declared, slapping down one last card and dealing the killing blow.

Lucian gave a disgruntled sigh. He had to give him credit the guy was a great tactician, though he would never say that to his face.

"You want to do one more?" He asked. Though from their perspective it seemed more of a cruel joke.

Nobody accepted his offer. Instead, everyone seemed to just kind of sit there in a mix of disbelief and depression.

"I've never felt so defeated in my whole life." Weiss said, regarding the pile of dead assets that lay near Neptune's almost untouched kingdom.

"Told you he was good." Lucian said, rubbing his eyes.

"Never lost a game." Neptune reiterated.

The master tactician starting packing away the pieces into its respective places. Seemingly satisfied with his display of ass kicking.

"So are the three of you guys in a team? Shouldn't there be one other person?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah. Though were waiting to see…" Sun's sentence drifted off. He gave Lucian a panicked look.

The insomniac quickly checked the clock then looked back to Wukong with the same expression.

"Oh crap!" He said, quickly getting up from the chair.

Wukong practically bolted from his standing positon.

"Neptune! Gotta go man!" Sun said, dragging him back by the collar.

"Whoa hey!" The young man was quickly pulled to his feet. The action caused some of the pieces to scatter back onto the desk.

"It was nice meeting you all!" Lucian said as he ran to catch up with his teammates.

And with that, the three of them ran straight to Ozpins office.

»»» »»»

"Do I look okay?" Neptune said whilst straightening his red jacket.

They were currently riding the elevator to Ozpins office. Needless to say it was a little nerve wrecking. This would be the start of everything for them.

"Yeah, sure I guess, who cares?" Sun said.

"I care, what if it is a girl dude?"

"Of for- Look just chill out okay?"

A ping noted them that they had reach the top of the tower.

"Ssh Quiet we're here" Lucian interrupted.

After what could have been the most tension filled thirty seconds the elevator doors finally opened up, revealing Ozpins office.

Lucian stepped out first. He was used to the place and so he took it upon himself to lead. In all likely hood Neptune and Wukong were a bit apprehensive to meet who was soon to be their new headmaster, additionally the grandeur of Ozpins office might have thrown them off a bit too.

The headmaster turned his attention to the newcomers.

"Ah good, you've arrived." Ozpin said.

"Sorry we're late, it uh, turns out grape soda is a lot harder to get out of clothes than we thought…" Lucian said.

As they approached it seemed that Ozpin wasn't the only one in the room.

In front of his desk was a girl with mossy green hair, thick and wavy, almost stylishly tangled at places, just coming down to her shoulders. The girl also appeared to be a kind of Faunus given the ears, but Lucian wasn't close enough to tell what type. She was wearing an olive green sports jacket that appeared to be at least two sizes too big. The sleeves came past her wrists and seemed cover the backs of her hands. Under that she wore a kind of slim fitting leggings, cropped leg and Onyx coloured. On her feet she was wearing some new looking sports trainers, black with white trimmings and laces. Actually most of her outfit looked recently bought.

The girl turned around. Inspecting the three boy's behind her and Ozpin. Her features became more apparent now, namely her eyes, they were a kind of bright green that seemed to match the same hue as her highlights that were now visible as the three got closer.

 _Is she our fourth?_ Lucian wondered.

She looked kind of stiff, though that being said she could have been waiting in Ozpins office for who knows how long.

The three of them stopped and stood in front the desk along with the girl. She stood on Lucians left while his friends stood on his right, casting curious looks at the girl.

"Well let's get right down to it…" Beacons headmaster laced his fingers on the clockwork desk. Lucian still wasn't sure if that was a design choice or if it just came with the tower.

"I'd like you to meet Eir." He said, gesturing to the girl. "As of today this young women will be your teammate."

Lucian gave a quiet nod to her. He presumed Wukong and Neptune did the same. It seemed that both of them were still holding their tongue, either they were nervous or polite, it was difficult to tell at the moment.

She looked up at them slightly, now that they were standing in a kind of line it appeared that she stood a head shorter than the boys. It also appeared that she was a wolf Faunus now that he was closer. All in all she seemed to have quite a slender build. She gave a kind of quick wave in response.

They turned around to look back at Ozpin.

"So how exactly is our enrolment going to work?" Neptune asked.

"Given that there are two transfer students and two late submission students I have decided that the best course of action is to simply make you all complete an extended year to replace the one you have lost."

"Wont that cause complications?" Lucian said.

"This is actually fairly common, but you should be aware that you are missing the foundations of that first year. You may find some of the examinations and assignments difficult as a result."

Ozpin shifted and took a glance at a piece of paper in front of him before looking back at them.

"Other than that there should be no other problems in regards to enrolment."

The three of them relaxed slightly. Lucian was sure everything would check out but it was nice to know that everything could go ahead as planned.

"Are there any more questions?" Ozpin asked

Everyone remained silent. At this point Ozpin stood up from his chair, his features becoming serious.

"Neptune, Lucian, Wukong and Eir. Do you agree to enrol into beacon? To dedicating your life to become huntsmen and defend our kingdoms against those who would do them harm?"

They all nodded in unison.

Ozpin took a small pause to look each one of them in the eye, as if challenging their resolve. The moment seemed to last for eternity.

"Then with that, I officially declare the formation of team LENS. Your enrolment will begin immediately."

Lucian gave a broad smile. He looked at Neptune and Wukong who seemed to be ecstatic, their nervousness completely vanishing. Neptune gave Sun a quick high five, the Faunus also went down the line and turned to Lucian who gave the same courtesy. Lucian turned to the newcomer then hesitated slightly, unsure of her response. The girl-Eir, Simply smiled back at him and slapped their palms together with almost the same enthusiasm.

The boys continued to jostle each other for a bit, their features beaming. Needless to say this was a momentous occasion.

Team LENS…

 _It's actually happening._ Lucian thought _we've finally made a team!_

"Sun Wukong."

Sun stopped his prodding of Neptune and looked back to his new headmaster. His movements turning rigid as if standing to attention.

"You will be the leader of this team. Congratulations"

Sun's smile broadened, he looked back at his friend's absolutely beaming. Once again the boys started to jostle each other.

"It's good to see you have enthusiasm, but take heed; A life of a huntsmen is a difficult one, you may not understand this completely now, but in time you will find out what exactly you have just agreed to."

Ozpin looked down at his desk as put his signature on the document. With just a quick inking a brand new team at Beacon was born. The man looked back up at the four in front of him.

"Make sure that you achieve this understanding in the future by doing your best in the present."

The newly made team didn't make any kind of movement but there was an understanding in their features. Beacons headmaster shifted to sit back into his chair.

"Your scroll will show you all to your new dorm room. Be sure to get accustomed to each other's company, for this team will exist for the rest of your duration at beacon. Other than that, you are dismissed."

They turned to leave. Eager to break into conversation but respecting the serenity of Ozpins office all the same. The newly made team stepped into the elevator, shortly after the doors closed and they began their descent.

They faced inwards into the center of the elevator, each one of them taking up a corner. Admittedly it was kind of cramped.

As the initial glee wore off things it started to become a little bit awkward in such close proximity with their new teammate. They barely knew the girl. Eir also seemed unsure of how to act.

"Let me introduce you," Sun started "My names Sun Wukong. These guys here are Neptune Vasilias and Lucian Azure." He made gestures to them as he stated their names. "Eir right? Eir…?"

"Just Eir." She responded.

"Okay…"

"I think that's fine." Neptune said "it's short and sweet, just like you." He gave his new teammate a wink.

Wukong and Lucian immediately shared a look of annoyance.

"Thanks…Uh Neptune right? Isn't that to do with the sea?"

"Yep, and you'll find I'm as deep as any ocean, and a lot more inviting."

"Is that why you smell like fish?" She picked up on the faint smell from the cafeteria fallout.

Lucians smiled. He looked to Wukong who was stifling a chuckle

"I like her already." Lucian said.

Neptune seemed to kind of pout slightly. It looked like Eir was taking pride in his expression.

Oh she was going to fit right in.

"So are you a late submission student as well?" Lucian directed at Eir.

"Yeah. Just managed to get into the deadline date at the last minute. You probably had the same sort of problem I bet."

"Uh, yeah…Something like that." Lucian decided to not mention him failing the first exam. Didn't want to give his new teammate the wrong impression…

"So did you guys expect to have someone on their own in the second year?" She said.

"Actually we had kinda depended on it, without a fourth person we wouldn't have been able to officially start a team" Sun said.

"So you're kind of blessing really." Lucian added.

"Oh...well, we'll see about that." She said.

»»» § »»»

Eir stepped out of the Elevator, along with the new teammates. The ride seemed to take longer than it had when she first rode it. Who knew beacons tower was so high up?

"Time to find our rooms?" Neptune said

"Yeah, Ozpin said that we would get something on our scrolls right?" Sun added.

"Way ahead of you" Lucian was already thumbing through the device. "Cool. It looks like we're in A block."

"And that's where?" Neptune said.

"Oh right yeah, you guys are new. Just follow me."

They did just that. Team LENS began walking down beacons many corridors. From Eir's perspective these corridors almost seem like the kind of walkway that led to a throne of sorts, seriously who laid out a red carpet for students going about their day? Eir almost didn't feel worthy to stand on it. Lucian on the other hand seemed to stroll through the place care free.

"How come you're so familiar with beacon?" Eir asked him

"It's long and boring story." He responded simply.

Eventually they found themselves outside of the campus. The place was massive, almost looking like a monastery of sorts. Hell, beacon could double a small city in some respects. No wonder it was hosting the Vytel tournament this year.

"Wait here. I'll be back in a sec, just want to check something." Lucian said, wandering off somewhere.

"All right" Wukong replied

She decided to take in the sights in the meantime. Leaving the boys to converse to themselves. The courtyard was fancy, even was even bigger than the residential districts main square. It seemed to be a kind of nexus point leading the four main parts of beacon. Ordained with lamp posts, holography and even small artificial ponds. The walkways were huge which allowed for a lot of foot traffic for various students.

 _I'm one of those students now…_

Eir had to keep reminding herself of that. Despite everything it just didn't seem to sink in quite yet.

She looked back up at the building they had just left, the one containing beacons main tower.

Eir couldn't help but pause at the sight. She had already seen it, but being at beacon…Well she wasn't poetic, but it really meant something. Perhaps it's because those pristine tall towers and the happy laughter of students stood in stark contrast to her home, where those sights were replaced by dingy old buildings and dirty alleyways, most of which had an addict or thug on almost every corner.

She looked back at the ground, feeling guilty. Things were nice here at beacon, but her family were still living in those conditions. Still struggling to survive.

Eir shook herself from her thoughts and looked to the three boy's that she had only just met. She regraded them for a while. These would be her teammates huh?

She watched Sun chat away with Neptune. The guy seemed very upbeat but also devious. She would probably get along with him. It was also reassuring that he was Faunus and that his friends weren't biased against him because of it. Her older sister Faye had warned her that not all humans cared for Faunus' and Eir had even learnt that the hard way. Luckily it looked like that wasn't going to be a problem here.

Her eyes moved on to the taller one of the two. He had blue hair which matched his ludicrous attitude. Though she had to admit the guy managed to pull it off. First impressions of him? Not so great.

And that one wearing the hoodie, Lucian. He was the midway point between Wukong and Neptune as height was concerned. That was kind of annoying, Eir was shorter than most, but she had hoped that there might be someone on her team around the same height at least.

She watched Lucian approach from the side, apparently finished with whatever he had to do.

Eir continued to regard him for a moment. He was an odd one, and looked like he could do with a good night's sleep but at least he sounded like Vav from her comic books. She could brag about that to her sisters at a later date.

"Just been to the student offices" He said. "Apparently we get our lockers a few hours from now."

"Cool." Neptune replied.

Lucian made a motion for them to follow. Once again the newly made team made their way to one to larger buildings on Beacons campus.

She wasn't sure how to feel about a team will all boys, or sharing a room for that matter. But at least they seemed nice enough and on the plus side she wasn't the only Faunus.

After a short walk they had made their way into the main student building. Eir found herself in a state of disbelief as the group navigated their way through the dormitories. It was clear that the place was student accommodation but holy crap was this place fancy.

Eventually they stopped. Lucian stepped up to one of the rooms, inspecting one of the plaques near the door.

"This looks like it." He said

Eir took a glance at the plaque. It had already had their names inscribed, seems that beacons staff works pretty quick.

Lucian unlocked the door with his Scroll. The door opened to reveal a very nice looking space.

The dorm room was large, almost larger than her family home in fact. She took note of the beds laid out neatly in a row. They looked expensive, new, and comfortable. A luxury that Eir would of killed for back home.

They stepped in, taking a gander at their new living space.

A large ornate looking window appeared to be the main focal point of the room, ordered with scarlet drapes. Hell, it even had a canvas or two for good measure. Along the walls there seemed to be a desk or two for work and what not. Eir doubted they would see much attention during their enrolment.

She stopped in the centre of the room. Taking it all in.

All in all Eir would quite happily spend her nights here at beacon. But there was just something… _off,_ about the place.

It's just that everything kind of looked a bit _too_ nice…

The blue haired idiot scratched his head as he looked around the new accommodation.

"I dunno, it just doesn't quite feel like _our_ room, you know?" Neptune said, stepping deeper into the space.

"Agreed." Eir said. Shuffling close behind.

One by one they started peeking about the room. Sun seemed to be rubbing his chin in thought.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Wukong said with a grin.

"Floor is lava?" Lucian guessed

"Better. Floor is lava _extreme_ edition."

"Ohhh this is going to be fuuunnn." Neptune said with glee.

To Eir's amusement the boys started grabbing random furniture, placing beds and shelves at odd angles, making a weird kind of circuit.

"Uh, should I be worried?" She asked.

"No, you should be helping!" Wukong chucked a bunch of pillows at her "Put those on the floor like a stepping stones."

She looked down at the pillows scattered around her. Eir found herself smiling.

She would show these clowns what a real game of floor is lava is.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **Team LENS...**_

 _ **If you guys want a little insight as to how this team came about then feel free to take a gander at the rest of this footnote. I'll show you what my thought process was when coming up with this idea. Otherwise scroll all the way down and smack that next chapter button like a bulls arse.**_

 _ **So yeah, Team LENS.**_

 _ **At first I wanted to place an OC into the wonderful world of remnant, but did not want to create a whole new team in order to do it.**_

 _ **While Rwby was still airing season two I thought; Hey, wouldn't it be cool if my OC were to hang around with Sun and Neptune? They don't seem to have a full team yet, so it would be cool right?**_

 _ **Then Season three came out, and Scarlet and Sage came into play. Annoyingly this was also around the time when I put my ideas onto paper and started toying around with a story. In summary I decided to ignore these newly introduced characters and made a second OC to complete the team, and thus team LENS was born. I don't feel too bad about ignoring them because we actually haven't seen much of them in first place.**_

 _ **So where are Scarlet and Sage you ask?**_

 _ **I actually don't know. I don't want to count them out because I would like to use them in a chapter or two if possible. I don't think I have the heart to write them off completely, but for the most part you could consider them non-existent in this fic until proven otherwise. Side note; my OC's were conceived before I even knew S & S existed. Lucian has a British accent because that's simply how I made him. It is merely coincidence that Scarlet is also British. Though feel free to imagine that Lucian has Gavin's voice. Incidentally Eir doesn't have green hair simply because Sage does either.**_


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7:**

 **Noisy Neighbours**

What was a neatly organised dorm room was now the stage for what could only could be described as one of the most dangerous games of Floor is lava ever conceived.

The game had been running for a few minutes now, and it was clear that their placement of obstacles was haphazard to say the least. Desks, bedframes, shelving, cabinets…no piece of furniture was spared in preparation for the game. Health and safety be dammed.

Wukong was currently balancing himself quite well on one of the cabinets as he worked out his next move.

"Oh please that was just one time! Plus you guys haven't been to the places where I have…" He said.

Sun readied himself for the jump. Judging the distance from the cabinet to the vertically placed shelving unit.

"Where even a wrong step…" He hopped onto the shelf adjacent to the cabinet "Could mean total doom." He regarded his performance with a satisfied smile.

"So you said you're from Vacuo?" Eir asked.

"Yep, born and raised. Though I tend to move around a lot."

The two of them watched Neptune navigate a staircase made of books. He was doing well considering how haphazardly Eir had stacked them. Well, in truth she designed that part of the course to be a trap of sorts.

"How about you Eir? Where are you from?" Sun said.

"I was born in Vacuo too, though me and my family moved to vale when I was a kid. Been here ever since."

"Hah! Nailed it." Neptune said triumphantly. Now positioned on top of what was once a nice looking office desk.

 _Damn, could have sworn I placed those right…_

Suddenly the books he leapt off began to topple over one by one in a kind of dominoes effect. The act seemed to set off other bits of the course as well.

"Huh…"

They watched the chain reaction knock a vase into the side of the bed frame Eir was standing on. The wood seemed start shaking slightly at the sudden collision.

"Oh sh-"Eir's sentence were cut short as the wooden frame collapsed beneath her feet.

She tumbled down onto the floor. Shortly after the contents of the book shelf collided on Eir's head in an avalanche of literature. The final book to hit her was one of the bigger medical encyclopaedias she had brought with her.

The boys winced that the sight. Needless to say the experience as quite painful.

Eir dug her way out of the rubble, brushing away a book from her head. She looked up to the collapsed shelf and then to the boys, giving a sly grin.

"I guess I've only got my _shelf_ to blame for that one."

The boy's immediately groaned in unison at her bad pun

"Your gonna be one of those aren't you?" Lucian said tiredly.

Eir gave a small giggle as she made herself comfortable in the mess.

Sun took the opportunity to make his next jump. After a few careful steps Sun used his tail to swing around to the next bed post.

Wukong's move seemed to shuffle a bunch of boxes into the bed post that Lucian was standing on.

"Oh that's not good…"

The boxes set off another chain reaction. Practically toppling Lucian's safe haven.

Before Eir could watch him drop he suddenly vanished.

She blinked. The next thing she knew he was on the ceiling. Dangling from the light fixture.

 _How the hell…!_

Eir looked up at her teammate with astonishment.

"Hey you can't use your semblance!" Sun said

"You didn't make that rule before" Lucian replied

"Well I'm making it now." He affirmed.

"Fine, umm..." He regarded his position for a moment, he was now stuck on the ceiling with no means to get down "How do I...?"

The door to their room opened. Four girls peered into the chaos, a colour scheme of red, white, black and yellow.

"Howdy neighbours!" The red caped girl greeted them.

She took a step inside.

"Ruby don't!" Wukong shouted, holding an arm out in warning.

Ruby hesitated, suddenly realising her mistake. She looked down at her foot, then quickly looked back up at team LENS in horror

"Remember me!" She shouted dramitcly. With that she fell to the floor with an equally dramatic death.

"Nooo! Ruby!" Neptune yelled.

"She was so young!" Lucian shouted in horror. Still dangling from the light fixture.

"What they hell is going on?!" Said the white haired girl, gazing into the post-apocalyptic themed room with bewilderment.

"Ruby's dead!" The blonde exclaimed. "Oh! I always told her to stay away from lava!"

The situation seemed to make sense to the raven haired student before it did the other girl.

"Oh this is that 'Floor is lava' game I've heard about"

"It's not a game! Damnit Blake people are dying!" Wukong said.

"Uh speaking of which..." Lucian said, looking up at the mount where the lighting was bolted into the wall. The bracket was slowly coming off, no longer supporting his weight.

He looked down at his teammates one final time.

"I regret nothing!"

The fixture finally came of the wall with a clink. Lucian descended into fiery oblivion. Or in this case a pile of discarded books and pillows.

"Oh the humanity!" Neptune screamed once more.

Sun seemed to stay resolute in the face of this calamity. He gave Neptune an intimidating stare.

"Give it up Neptune! Its only me and you now, and I have the high ground!"

Neptune returned the look of intimidation.

"You underestimate my power…"

He took a step at the end of the office desk. The distance was great but Neptune seemed undaunted in his demeanor.

"Don't try it…"

He jumped, coming just short of the bed frame. In desperation he frantically tried to grab anything remotely near. He managed to grab one of the curtains near the window.

The curtain slowly started to rip.

"No. No. Not like this..." The fabric gave one last tear before letting Neptune plummet to the floor. "Not like this!"

The hard thud of Neptune's body sounded Sun's victory.

"Oh yeah! That's how it's done!" He threw his hands up as he proclaimed his victory. "That's right ladies and gentlemen! Sun Wukong remains the floor is lava champion for five years running!"

"I swear it's fixed every year…" Lucian muttered while pushing a few pillows out of his way.

"What on Remnant is happening here!?" A stern voice shouted into the room. Glynda pushed her way into the dorm, her features bordering on outrage. The students from earlier scurried off as to not face the wrath their tutor.

"You've barely been enrolled for one hour and the first thing you do is trash your room and manage to accumulate three noise complaints!"

The four of them seemed to sink back into the mess, as if trying to keep out of her sight as if she were some sort of hungry Nevermore.

"What do you have to say for yourselves?"

"Uh…In our defense these bed frames are really flimsy." Wukong said.

The women shot him a dangerous look. Sun instantly shrunk under it.

"I want this mess cleaned up at once!"

Lucian knelt up from the mix of pillows and literature.

"You know the clean-up would go a lot quicker if you were to use your Semblance…" He tried his luck.

The women grunted. Suddenly with a wave of her hand one of the textbooks took on a purple aura. A moment later it flew across the room and smacked right into Lucian's forehead.

"Worth it…" He said while rubbing his noggin.

"I want this mess cleaned up." She reaffirmed "If I get any more noise complaints you can expect to spend your first night at Beacon in detention. Have I made myself clear?"

"Crystal."

"It won't happen again ma'am"

She turned on her heels and marched out of the room.

"So uh? Who's up for some redecorating?"

 _ **Half an hour, and a trip to the bathroom later…**_

They stood and looked back at their new and improved room

Lucian's bed was placed against the left wall, folded length-ways in the middle to function like a couch. What was left of the cabinets were used as armrests for both ends of the makeshift couch. Despite how hastily it was made it was actually pretty comfy. Though Eir couldn't understand why he had traded his bed for seating, maybe he intended to sleep on it anyway?

Eir herself had made a pre-knotted rope out of the torn curtain remnants, placed next to the window for those 'Just in case' moments.

Neptune had draped spare bed sheets over the right wall to act as a kind of projector screen for his scroll. Apparently the idea was that they were going to hold regular movie nights. Sun had brought over some movies from haven in preparation.

The left over materials from the circuit were mostly thrown out, though some of it was used to make the start of an incomplete pillow fort. But that was a task for another day.

"Much better." Eir said, placing her hands on her hips.

They all nodded in approval. Then made themselves comfortable.

Eir and Lucian sat on the makeshift couch. Neptune and Wukong both sat on the bed opposite.

"Can't believe he won again" Neptune muttered

"I still think it was rigged." Lucian said, slouching further down into the couch.

"You were cheating. You didn't deserve to win."

"No I wasn't. You should have made the rules clearer." Lucian argued.

That's right, Lucian suddenly vanished, how exactly did he do that?

"So your semblance can make you teleport?" She directed at Lucian, recalling the instance.

"It's a part of it I guess." Lucian said

He reached down, collecting one of the bulbs from the downed light fixture. They still had a lot of cleaning up to do.

Lucian held it between two fingers, a moment later the bulb started emitting light.

"My semblance is light manipulation, the technical term is called Photokinesis. Though most people call us light binders."

He raised his other hand, suddenly the luminescence shifted from the bulb and collected into it. A moment later the light seemed to sink into his skin and dissipate. He put down the bulb.

"Cool."

"I can use it to teleport around, though it has its limits"

He slouched further back into couch, looking back at Eir.

"So how about you? What's your semblance?"

She suppressed a smirk.

"I think it's better if I just show you."

She looked at her new teammates, deciding who her example should be. Her sights fell on Lucian.

 _He already looks half asleep, this should be easy._

Eir shifted closer to Lucian, then locked her green eyes on his blue ones.

"Hold still..."

She cast her semblance.

Her world began to shift slightly, but she anchored her conscious onto Lucian in order to keep it steady. Eir remained focussed, from the corner of her vision she could see Wukong and Neptune looking at her with a curiosity. Lucian himself shared that same look.

Wait what?

She regarded him whilst casting. Lucian was still upright, still lucid…That wasn't meant to happen.

"You feeling any different?" She asked

"Uh…No?" Lucian replied timidly.

Frustrated Eir amped up the pressure, this time her head started to feel the strain.

She focused, this time _really_ focused.

The effort was wasted.

"So you can make your eyes shine...? That's nice I suppose..." He said, a little confused at her strife.

Eir blinked and backed off, the semblance was draining her more than him at this point.

 _Why isn't it working?_

She gave a quick glance to the boy's. They seemed unsure of how to react, they probably thought she was mad or something. Eir hid her frustration but then set her sights on a new target.

"Neptune, come here."

The blue haired idiot did just that and sat beside her. Neptune was closer than Eir would've liked but this time she would make an exception.

She cast her semblance.

Once again Eir locked eyes with her clueless volunteer. This time her semblance seemed to do the trick.

Neptune began to waver, his body swaying slightly and his eye lids desperately trying to stay open.

"Eir…Has anyone ever told you that…you have the…most beautiful…" Before he could complete his sentence Neptune collapsed backwards into a pile of books. Snoring away.

The boys smiled, her semblance had done its job. The blue haired idiot was happily snoozing with his face pressed against a textbook She didn't suppress a smirk this time.

"Whoa, they really do glow. Hey do me next!" Sun said.

"If you insist…"

Once again Eir cast her semblance.

"Pretty…"

Wukong's stance became more of a drunken stumble, eventually he fell backwards onto one of the mattresses scattered on the floor.

Her smile broadened, admiring her handy work. Lucian gave a chuckle at the sight. Neptune and Wukong were down for the count.

"Cool, but uh…when will they wake up?"

"In an hour or two." She said. "Probably…"

Eir shook her head slightly in an effort to get rid of some of the fuzziness in her skull, multiple castings would take its toll. But that would fade in a minute or so.

"Hmm." Lucian stood up, and walked over Sons snoozing form. "In the meantime how about I show you around beacon?"

"Sounds like a plan."

»»» § »»»

Lucian and his new team mate walked along the road leading towards the amphitheatre. The sun had started to set slightly on the horizon, making beacons campus quite the sight. Lucian had shown Eir around Beacon for a little while now but the coliseum was the last thing on the list. Lucian watched her subtly look around campus from the corner of his eye. The girl seemed to really be taking in the sights, even the things that Lucian took for granted in his time at the academy. Either she was easily impressed or Lucian had become desensitized to Beacon over the years.

"So uh. Sorry about Neptune, his first instinct with girls are to flirt with them. But once you get to know him he's a little less of a..."

"Ass?" Eir finished for him.

"Planned to put it gentler, but yeah."

They kept walking, letting the white walkway guide them toward their destination. There weren't many students around on campus at the moment.

"I can guarantee you'll get on with Wukong though, the guys an endless source of energy. Just don't leave any food unguarded…"

"I'll try to keep that in mind"

An airship flew overhead. That's right, beacon was still the nexus point for new students and civilians wasn't it? After picking up Neptune he had almost forgotten.

"So how long have you guys known each other?"

"Oh for years really, back when we were kids. Until recently we hadn't seen each other in ages."

"How come?"

Lucian took a moment to think about it. "I guess life got in the way. My home was here, Wukong usually only visits on the count of his wanderlust and Neptune's family lives in Haven. It was hard to get in touch like we used to, you know?"

"I think not listening to Neptune for a few days would only be a good thing if I'm honest"

"He's not that bad" Lucian chuckled "On the bright side if he annoys you just put him to sleep."

"Good point."

"So what is your semblance exactly?"

"It's like a kind of hypnosis. I normally use it to put people to sleep." She glanced at Lucian for a moment "I thought that with you being an insomniac it would make it easier, but I guess not."

"Ah, right..."

"What?"

"I can't actually sleep."

"I know that already."

"No, I mean I literally can't." Lucian elaborated.

She looked at him with raised eyebrow.

"You're serious?"

"Dead serious."

"So that's why you're so uhh…aloof?"

"That's one of many words people use to describe me, yeah."

"So like, how are you even still functioning?"

"Wish I had an answer for you. I've chalked it up to one of life's great mysteries"

She seemed to ponder for a moment as they walked, Lucian often got that reaction when he explained that fact about himself.

"So is there anything else I should know? Like is Sun a kleptomaniac? Do students on campus have a tendency to explode?"

He gave a soft chuckle.

"You joke but that happens more often than you think." Lucian said, recalling an interesting dust explosion. "But no not really, as I said before we should be given lockers later today. I've already packed my weapons away."

Lucian pointed to weapons clipped to her tailbone

"Speaking of which. I take it those are yours?"

"Yeah" She reached back and held her weapons out proudly, the curved blades winding backwards out of its compact form and into a pair of sickles.

"Handufactured by yours truly."

"You mean handmade?" Lucian responded

"Same thing."

It seems Eir makes her own words as well as weapons.

He took a closer look. The blades themselves were a blackish steel, sharpened all the way to a straight razor finish, its point looking delightfully wicked. The sharpening on it seemed to continue half way along the weapons spine before ending. The handles were a kind of dull green with the some grey accents near the end of the handle. Looking closer it seemed that the blade was actually partitioned into segments, another weapon form probably. Lucian would have to pester her about that later.

"Very nice" He said, nodding in appreciation of her chosen arsenal.

She place them back onto her belt, the blades returning to its compact form once again. They seemed relatively well cared for. Or they were new, it was difficult to tell.

 _Wonder how she would fair in a fight…_ Lucian wondered.

He looked back at her. She seemed to have a contented look on her face.

"So what do you think of the place so far?" He asked

"It's nice, bit rich for my blood. Plus with your funny accent I feel like I'm being escorted by a butler."

"My accent isn't funny"

"Yeah, sure thing _Vav_ "

"Oi"

"See," She pointed out his response "point proven."

Lucian simply shook his head and kept walking. Eventually finding they found their way into the amphitheatre itself.

Lucian stopped to give Eir a moment to admire its sheer size. The place was a basically an open roofed large circular dome, a coliseum of sorts really, which was technically true given that matches took place there.

"Is this the place?"

Lucian nodded.

"This place has been host to many a battle and many a boring lecture, recently I think it was used for the entrance ceremony. Though neither of us were here for that."

Eir took in its detail. She was trying to feign some disinterest but Lucian could look right through it. Actually she had been trying that same act for a while now.

"Pretty cool right?"

"Yeah."

Lucian motioned toward the door.

"Well, come on. Let's go have a looksee. If we're lucky there might be a practice match on."

The two of them passed through the large amphitheatre doors, making their way into the buildings centre.

The ringing sound of steel seemed to faintly echo from the room.

"Looks like we came at a good time." Lucian said

He motioned to one of the stairwells on the left-hand side of the entrance. They could get a better look at what was going on from the bleachers.

As they ascended the stairs they could make out two familiar figures, a blonde haired faunus and a blue idiot, both locked in combat.

 _Ah looks like they're awake_

He and Eir made their way to the railing. Spectating the battle before them.

Wukong was currently in the middle of one of his fluid staff motions, giving a quick jab with his weapon as Neptune swatted them away with deft movements of his trident.

After a few exchanges they finally took note of their audience. Neptune relaxed from his stance upon seeing his teammates on the spectators stand.

"So where have you guys been!" Neptune shouted.

Wukong also turned around to greet them.

"Showing the new girl around campus. How was your nap?"

"Fine I guess, minus half a textbook stuck to my face. You two wanna spar?"

Lucian gave her a look.

"I think I'll just stay up here and watch if that's okay?" Eir said.

"Suit yourself. I'll see you in a bit then?"

She nodded.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **If you feel as though that this chapter ended a bit abruptly it's because I had to cut it short.**_

 _ **This chapter and the next was actually just one whole piece, a large one at that, one that went just over my 6000 words cap rule.**_

 _ **Also two things; One, sorry for the weird spacing in one of the bits of dialogue. The gods of Microsoft Word saw fit that spacing just had to be there, no matter how many sacrifices I made to them. Two, this chapter marks the start of a sporadic upload schedule. I cannot give you a proper chapter upload estimate quite yet as I'm busy as dicks atm, but take solace in the fact that I do have other chapters in the works, there just not quite ready yet. (Check back in a week, I should have something up by then.)**_

 _ **In the meantime feel free to pick apart my work and scream at me for what I'm doing wrong.**_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8:**

 **Naming conventions**

Eir saw her new teammate's display of acrobatics during the floor is lava game but now she would finally get to see how they would handle themselves in combat.

Neptune stepped aside as Lucian entered the arena.

He seemed to have his hood up now which was odd. He also appeared to be wearing a kind of glove on his left hand, fingerless at the middle, index and thumb with a kind of shiny metal plating on the back of his hand.

Eir leant on the railing. Looking at him in more detail. Lucian had retrieved his weapons during his walk down. They were currently in there compact forms and resting at his back, bladed weapons of sorts by the looks of things. They were split in partitions, each blade segment was tilted forwards slightly allowing for the other parts to slide in behind it, thus making it smaller and easier to carry around.

Lucian reached back and pulled them free from his hoodie. A moment later the blades slotted outwards and lengthened into a pair of single edged straight swords. The main body of the blades were a standard gun metal grey, but stood out with a bright sliver edge, almost glinting in the light of the arena.

The handles and guards were a blackish steel similar to Eir's own weapons, ordained with similarly coloured rubber grip for stability. The hilt itself looked rather intricate near the top with sliver parts and trimmings that seemed to perform a function of sorts. This weapon was obviously built with more than one form in mind. The unique trigger system that was flush to the handle seemed to empathize that point.

Lucian levelled the blades at his opponent.

"Right then Sun, let's see what you've got."

Once again the amphitheatre erupted with the sound of steel on steel.

The two of them went into their respective attacks. Sun with quick flicks and rebates of his staff, Lucian with deft crosscutting motions, both techniques being countered by their opponent's actions. As staff and swords flew a smile could been seen on their features.

Eir wasn't sure, but these two already looked very comfortable fighting against each other. Old sparing partners perhaps? It would make sense considering how long they've known each other.

Lucian stance shifted as his blade as he went into a new flowing maneuverer. He whipped the first blade around with startling efficiency. Wukong was forced to keep his staff in a series of defensive motions to protect himself from the flurry. Eventually Lucian let up, Sun took the moment to perform a long thrust at his opponent. A blow that was sure to collide with his hand.

Lucian let go of the weapon mid spin, letting the blade flip in the air and repositioning his hand to avoid Suns strike. As it rotated he caught it back in a reverse grip, then struck in one fluid motion. Sun backed off slightly as the hit connected against his arm. Once again the two of them went into another set of attacks. Those smiles of theirs never fading from their faces.

Wukong decided to ramp up the tempo, his staff spinning about his body with almost blinding speed. Each block and parry generated a harsher tone as the staff smacked into the blades. Lucian's manoeuvres became far more defensive as the staff only increased in momentum.

For a moment Sun gripped the staff with his tail, then used it as a pivot point to come about and strike Lucian with a low kick that connected with his stomach. The blow sent him backwards, Lucian rolled out of it and proceeded to make his response.

Lucian slapped the spines of his weapons together, the blade segments seemed to shift, the intricate hilt system changed to adopt both blades, merging together and extending to create a much longer double edged blade. Additionally the quilon's stood up from its previous knuckle guard position to create a cross guard befitting the two hander. The handle also seemed to elongate slightly to accommodate for more leverage.

Lucian immediately came forwards with a thrusting attack. Once again the small gap in their exchanges was quickly filled.

 _There good_. Eir thought to herself

She watched the difference that the weapon change brought. Lucian's movements were slower and were performed with more care, but the increased reach seemed to make Wukong wary to engage too eagerly.

Lucian brought the blade back around in a hard downwards strike. Sun blocked but faltered when it came into contact with his weapon, the force of the blow quickly forcing him down onto his knees, Lucians sword had beaten down Sun's staff and dug down into his shoulder slightly as a result.

She could see why he had changed weapons, the amount of force he could apply now meant that he could break through Wukong's guard.

Sun let himself succumb to the blades weight and crouched further down, performing a quick rolling motion and at the same time triping Lucian up with the length of his weapon.

Sun took the moment while he had it. His staff suddenly split into two sections, producing two sets of nun chucks. Lucian just about manged to get up from the floor during the action.

The Faunus came about for a series of dangerous looking blows, each one creeping slightly closer to their opponent with every movement.

Lucian seemed to be dodging a bit overzealously. Strange…the strikes were nowhere near-

A bang reverberated from the room. A faint trail of smoke emitted from Sun weapons.

 _Wait, those are pistols too!_

A few more rounds popped from the weapons. Lucian blocked the barrage by putting the flat of the sword against the shots, the steel rang out in a bright tone as a result.

As he was blocking Sun came in close, letting the chain from one of his nun chucks wrap around his opponents cross guard, the other pointed at his now exposed head.

Lucian cursed and shifted to try and dodge the attack. The blast just scored a glancing blow to the side of his face as a result, even blowing back his hoodie in the process.

The two of them wrestled with weapons for a time, Sun managed to floor Lucian with some kind of martial art style Eir didn't recognise.

With his sparing partner floored. Wukong quickly put the staff back together and prepared to bring it back down onto his opponent.

To Eir's amazement Lucian's weapon seemed to shift once again. The handle of the insomniac's weapon extended even further, akin to a spear shaft. At the other end it looked like the blade hand condensed downwards to create a short narrow point, the spear formation becoming all the more apparent. As the shaft extended Wukongs strike was blocked against it, Lucian used the recoil from the blow to kneel up and counter in a rising vertical slash, the resulting blow collided with his opponent's side and forced him to disengage.

Lucian swiftly got up and immediately planted his feet firmly on the ground, putting himself into a kind of spear stance. Wukong also went into a similar posture with his staff. Not a moment after they started attacking each other with renewed vigour.

Eir couldn't help but be in awe of the display of expertise. The best fighting she had ever seen was from the highlights of the Vytal tournaments. But seeing combat like this in person…Well it was another world entirely.

Her eyes eagerly tracked every motion. She wasn't too sure on the techniques used but from this demonstration she could tell just how different the two weapon styles were. Eir had to give them credit, these guys obviously knew how to fight. She wasn't so sure about what to expect from their newly formed team, but now she knew that combat wasn't going to be a problem.

They continued to circle each other, weapons spinning in a constant motion, almost a dance.

All in all it was quite the show.

Both of them suddenly stopped after one last bout. Their weapons to each other's heads. A smirk on each of their expressions.

They both relaxed and laughed.

"I see sleep deprivation still doesn't slow you down any." Wukong noted.

"And I see your kicks haven't lost there power either." Lucian responded, rubbing his stomach slightly.

Their weapons went back into their compact forms. The two of them started to playfully hit each other as they did in the tower, muttering something contently to themselves.

With the fight concluded Eir decided to make her way down. Instead of going to the stairs she decided to skip the journey entirely and just jump down from the spectators stand. They boys took note of her as she approached.

"Hey Eir, you want in?" Sun asked.

"Oh hell no- I mean, that was awesome. Like, no offense but I wasn't sure if you guys could actually fight. And what the hell are those? it was a staff, then they were nunchucks, then they were guns…"

"Pretty sweet right? I call em gun chucks."

"Gun chucks…" She repeated to herself

 _That's genius, why didn't I think of that?_

A thought occurred.

"Hey could you help me name these things then?"

She took out one of her sickles.

Pressing a hidden switch on the handle the blade segmented and collapsed. Forming into a long serrated whip. A bright green wire held each section of blade together.

"So sickles that turn into whips?" Wukong observed.

"Yeah."

"So like, Wickles?" Neptune added

"It also turns into a crossbow." She said

"Wicklebow then?" Lucian mused.

"Hmm, doesn't really sound threating though…" Wukong said

"Yeah..." She let the whip coil back into the form of a blade, each section giving a clink as they set in place. "Naming conventions are a ball ache sometimes."

»»» § »»»

After another grudge match between Neptune and Sun the group made their way to the locker rooms not far from the amipthertre. A message on their scrolls had alerted them that they were now ready to be used.

Once again Lucian showed his friends on where to go, he didn't mind, in fact he kind of enjoyed it. It wasn't just showing them around for a temporary visit, this time they were here to stay for good.

As they shuffled further into the room it appears they weren't alone. Team RWBY were also gathered and fiddling with weapons whilst chatting amongst themeselves.

"Aren't those the girls from earlier?" Eir noted

Lucian tracked her gaze. It looked like Ruby 'n' co were preparing for something. Probably another mock battle like theirs.

"Oh yeah, you guys haven't met," Sun said as he put a hand on her shoulder "Let me show you off to our new friends!"

Before she could utter another word Eir was quickly dragged away to meet new company. If she was lucky her second experience with team RWBY would be a bit tamer, and hopefully a lot less messy.

He let Eir get acquainted with the team RWBY. In the meantime he went off to put his weapons back into his locker. Lucian found himself annoyed as he read the message from earlier. Apparently his locker hadn't changed from the old one he was given, that meant it was practically on the other side of the room and well away from his new teammates.

Lucian eventually made his way over and popped it open. He pondered the person who designed them as he placed Skoll and Hati into one. Seriously, a rocket propelled locker? Whoever designed them was either a mad genius or just mad.

Lucian heard cursing to the right of him.

He leant backwards and peered over to the neighbouring locker. It looked like the armour clad blonde guy from the library was having trouble getting the thing open.

"Stupid, metal, piece of crap-" The student muttered as his struggled with the door.

He watched the young man's strife for a moment before finally speaking up.

"You uh, need a hand?"

The blonde turned around, slightly embarrassed at how worked up he had gotten.

"Would be appreciated." He said. Giving a slight sigh.

Lucian helped him pry the door open. It looked like he managed to get the mechanism jammed somehow.

With some effort the door eventually slid open.

The student gave a sigh of relief then turned to his saviour.

"Thanks. Lucian wasn't it?"

"Yep, and don't mention it, uh." Lucian searched for a name but drew a blank "Sorry, never caught your name back then."

"The name's Jaune" He said, offering his hand

Lucian took it

"Don't mention it Jaune"

"So did you get your fourth in the end?"

"Yep," He said, glancing over at his new teammate, She seemed to have made a joke at Weiss's expense judging by the laughter from the rest of team Rwby "She's an uh, interesting one, I'll say that much."

"I'll bet." He said, putting his sword and shield away. "Hey, let me introduce you to my team."

He showed Lucian down the opposite end of the locker room where three other students were busy sorting out their own lockers. The first was the black haired student, a very calm and controlled looking guy, he was a complete contrast compared to the bubbly ginger girl chatting ever contently next to him. The last one was a literal red head wearing some kind of bronze armour, almost like…

"Here we have Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha." Jaune said to them as he and Lucian approached.

His team turned around to look at the newcomer

"Nice to meet you all. I'm Lucian" He greeted

Nora was the first one to pop up.

"Hey there! I'm Nora!" She grabbed his hand for a herculean handshake, if she shook any harder Lucian was sure his arm would have come clean out of its socket. "Well I suppose you already knew that! I'm sorry if I come off as a bit hyper, it's just that I get a little excited when meeting new people, Oh I can already tell that were going to be the best of friends! I can't wait to-"

"Nora" Ren interjected, as he pried off her grip from Lucian's hand "Inside voice, remember?"

Lucian gave him a thankful nod as he rolled his arm in its socket, so Ren was kind of like a limiter to her? Lucian could relate.

His attention turned to the red head.

Lucian couldn't help but pause slightly. He didn't get a good look back in the library… but that red hair, that armour…

 _Holy shit, that's actually Pyrrha Nikos…_

"I have to say it's an honour meeting you in person." He said stepping forwards "I thought your match with Nero in the last mistral tournament was absolutely brilliant."

"It's my pleasure" She said cheerfully

 _Weiss Schnee and Pyrrha Nikos…Beacon must've been upping its game lately…_

He turned to the other three

"You guys are in safe hands if you got her as leader of your team"

"I uh," Jaune started "I'm actually the team leader."

"Oh…well I'm sure that their safe hands either way." Lucian Amended, shooting an apologetic look to Jaune.

"So Lucian, is your team going to be in our lessons tomorrow?" Pyrrha asked quickly, in an effort to change the subject.

"Yep. We should be officially attending classes." He replied

"Well, we look forward to studying with you." Ren added, taking his turn to shake Lucians hand gentler than his ginger counterpart had.

"Yeah, I've never heard a funny accent like yours in real life, Oh! Can you do an impression of Vav?" Nora jumped back in eagerly, earning another exasperated look for Ren.

"My accent isn't-"

"That's what I said!" Eir's voice spoke from directly over Lucians shoulder.

He jumped slightly upon Eir's sudden appearance. He turned to find her smiling cheerfully at the new group infront Lucian.

"Is that your new teammate by chance?" Ren enquired, unphased by Eirs sudden appearance.

"Yep, this is-"

"Eir." She beat him to it. "Hi all."

JNPR returned the greeting with varying amounts of enthusiasm. Unfortunately the arrival of another new person started Nora off on another rambling spree. Whilst Ren tried to regain control of his partner Eir appraised each of them with mild amusement, up until something caught her attention.

She pushed past Lucian and practically blanked the other three, her sights solely on Pyrrha. The Spartan girl didn't seemed too fussed by the newcomer's such direct approach. In fact she seemed to welcome it.

 _You're gonna be a hand full aren't you?_ Lucian thought as he straightened out his hoodie and watched Eirs eager advance.

Brash, impulsive and a smart mouth….

 _Yes_ He thought

She was going to fit right in with this team.

"Can I get your autograph?" Eir asked gleefully

Lucian sighed and face palmed.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **Right!**_

 _ **These first few chapters were the hardest, not because I found it hard to write, but because there is so much riding on that first page. If you're also writing a FF you too probably know that sense of doubt. You can have plenty of ideas for your fiction but ultimately that first page dictates if people are actually going to read your work.**_

 _ **Now writers have their own ways of doing things. For me I never expected to actually start writing an ENTIRE fanfiction, at first I just wanted to get these thoughts of mine out of my head and onto paper. Now these thoughts didn't have too much structure at the time, I didn't even think about the events that would lead to them or why the even really happened in the first place. Suppose you could call them short hand one shots. Anyway the more of these things I wrote the more I started thinking about how they could click together.**_

 _ **This made writing fun, but bit me in the ass when I had to write the beginning. It's probably worth noting that the first things you read are not the first things I write. (This is true for the start of the fic, and in some cases the start of all of my chapters so far)**_

 _ **Anyway, referring back to the top I mentioned the struggle of writing the first page. Yeah, this was hard for me.**_

 _ **I had a clear idea of my characters. I had a clear idea of my storyline. But now I actually had to start from the beginning and give people a reason to care. I actually had to start pretending to an audience that I actually know how to be an author and tell a story.**_

 _ **I have stuff that I think is really good in this F.F that you haven't seen yet, but if my first chapter is absolute poo poo pancakes I can't exactly say:**_

 _ **"Please ignore this plate off poo poo pancakes and cut straight to the ice cream sundae"**_

 _ **If i have to make this excuse, then I'm not doing my job as a story teller.**_

 _ **It's kind of nerve wrecking, you know?**_

 _ **Those beginning chapters actually had a few variations and revisions before I finally nailed down what would be my story start.**_

 _ **Side note, it's good to have friends that like to read fanfictions. So shout out to one particular Adam for allowing me to spit ball story structure at him. Not to be confused with Adam Taurus, though both persons are equally fucked up.**_

 _ **Also if you're honestly liking this fic and have actually read this far down I really appreciate the fact that you've taken the time to sit down and read my work.**_

 _ **Like seriously, if you get a laugh from Eir's bad puns or enjoy Team LENS's witty banter then that means the world to me. Like I said before I never expected to write an actual story, these were just ideas I had been toying with. I wasn't expecting anyone to actually read them. And now I've actually published stuff on ! Holy hell!**_

 _ **So as corny as it sounds...**_

 _ **From the bottom of my heart. Thank you for reading the words I never thought I would write.**_


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9:**

 **Education**

Eir awoke to a bright new morning

She was worried that the bed was going to be too soft compared to what she was used to but after a few seconds of letting her head hit the pillow she drifted off quite quickly. Eir debated lying in bed a little longer, savouring the feeling plush clean sheets and soft pillows. After some deliberation she eventually decided to take on the day.

Eir sat up from the bed and stretched out slightly, giving the room a quick scan. It appeared the boys were already awake.

Neptune was standing up next to a mirror and adjusting his hair, as she expected actually. He had most of his uniform on already minus the jacket. Eir looked to his left to regard the other Faunus in the room.

Wukong was barely dressed, his shirt was creased and partially unbuttoned. It also looked like he was struggling with his tie, cursing under his breath as he constantly re-did the knot. He gave Eir a quick greeting as she got up. From what she saw the uniform was meant to have a blue vest and jacket, though it looked like he had ignored those articles of clothing.

And Lucian, where was he? He left the dorm room for the entire night, he said he was an insomniac but she had at least expected him to pop back in at some point.

She scanned the room further then released why she didn't immediately notice him. Lucian was slumped down on one of the left over chairs from yesterday's redecorating, unmoving and with a distant look in his eye.

Eir thought Wukong's uniform looked scruffy on him but Lucian seemed to personify the very aspect of dishevelment.

"Morning." She greeted him as she walked by.

Lucian gave a kind of grunt, eyes glassy and distant.

Eir looked him up and down. Lucian was already dressed, well, in a manner of speaking… His hair was an absolute mess, more so than usual. The bags that he had under his eyes were far more apparent compared to yesterday. He too seemed to have skipped the blue sweater. His tie was loose and barely clinging to his neck, his shirt untucked and haphazardly buttoned.

Honestly it was a miracle he got dressed at all.

"Not a morning person I take it?" She said

Lucian didn't say a thing. To say he looked distant was an understatement, devoid of life would have been far more appropriate.

Eir decided to ignore him for the time being and walked into the on suite bathroom, making sure to lock the door behind her. She then took out the uniform she had been given yesterday.

Eir regarded the clothes laid out in front of her.

A crisp white shirt partnered with a red ribbon, smart looking shoes with a red plaid skirt, tan vest and brown jacket. Definitely not the kind of thing she would wear casually. In fact Eir couldn't recall a time where she had ever needed to wear something like this.

With a small degree of nervousness she began to change.

She decided on the long stockings, just didn't feel right to have her legs so exposed, admittedly she didn't care for the skirt but at least it didn't look bad on her. Come to think of it she hadn't worn one since she was a kid. After some fiddling with the red ribbon she eventually got herself into the uniform.

Eir turned to the bathroom mirror and found herself pausing.

No longer was there a scrawny looking girl trying to remain inconspicuous in the dead of night. Instead there was something else. She looked…different, distinguished. She looked like…

The realization hit her.

 _Holy crap I actually look like a student now..._

She already knew that before, but the uniform seemed to make it final. A new kind of nervousness washed over her. She had to attend classes now, start doing this whole 'studying' thing…

Eir wasn't sure if she was quite ready for that.

She made her way out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. Neptune gave her a quick glance before nodding in approval. He didn't seem creepy about it, he just seemed to acknowledge the new look.

 _I guess this looks normal from an outside perspective?_

Contented with that knowledge she began to get things sorted for today's classes. After some time all four of them were fully dressed. Though only Neptune and Eir looked the part of a prim and proper student. Sun and Lucian looked like the aftermath of hurricane.

Sun gave his teammates a quick scan, seemingly contented with what he saw.

"Cool. Are we already to go?" Wukong said

"Yep." Eir said. Ready to take on the day.

Neptune also nodded.

That just left Lucian

Eir turned and took another look at the sleepyhead. He hadn't moved an inch.

"Uh, Is he gonna be okay?" Eir asked as Sun walked past her.

"Oh yeah he's fine. Here, let me take care of him."

He grabbed the insomniac by the collar and started dragging him towards the door.

"Come on buddy, it's time for our first class together."

Lucian seemed to give another intelligible grunt as a response as the four of them began the trek to their lesson.

The Faunus girl kept her nervousness to herself. Eir had never actually set foot in a class room before, to say that she had any real education at all was a stretch, but regardless she was going to take today head on.

Its only education right?

»»» »»»

Having a class with Oobleck was tiring, partly of how fast he talks but mainly in the way he moves.

Eir almost gave herself whiplash as she turned her head to track her teacher as he zipped around the room. Her eyes struggled to keep up with the man, eventually she just pretended to write notes in order to elevate the pain in her neck. She probably wasn't the only one to do the same.

He kept on raving on about…Something, It was difficult to process his words at the speed he could talk. Like seriously, how the hell did anyone manage to keep pace with a guy so amped up on caffeine that he could probably reach critical mass?

She honestly wasn't sure if it was some sort of energetic tick of his or a method to make sure his students were paying attention. Apparently the only one who held that answer was Lucian, and he was in no position to make conversation at the moment. Actually she wondered if Lucian was even aware he was in lesson right now…

"Now it's easy to account for certain variables given that you apply the correct methodology to a situation. In this case the subject of thermodynamics can greatly aid a huntsmen in this instance." Oobleck spoke as he carried on his lecture.

She scratched her head. Admittedly Eir didn't have the knack for science but this?

She looked to her left. Lucian remained half dead, he wouldn't be any help. Instead she turned to Wukong at her right, he seemed to be facing Neptune with the same kind of confused expression.

Neptune turned to them, giving an okay sign, not showing any hint of concern.

 _Okay? I haven't even heard of Thermodynamics until now! I'm screwed!_

"Now to fully compensate for incoming damage a user can theoretically focus their Aura in order to fully withstand the impact. Why don't our new transfer students enlighten us? Surely you four have adopted knowledge from outside of the academy?"

Their teacher seemed to shoot off to face the four of them. A rush of air almost blowing away their notes.

"Tell me, what sort of method would we use in order to help endure thermal damage?"

A pair of glass spectacles adjusted to Eir. Obviously he wanted her to answer the question.

Panic washed over her. That's when something tapped her leg. She risked looking down, Suns tail seemed to be holding a small scrap of paper with writing on it.

Eir quickly scanned the note.

"Um, the resistance amplification methodology…" she said timidly.

"Good answer! Yes by using resistance amplification the disturbance of atoms is countered by-"

Eir stopped listening, taking a sigh of relief. She spared a thankful look at her saviour. Sun simply shook his head and pointed over to the blue haired idiot.

Neptune gave her a sly wink. This time she let it go. He gave the right answer, maybe he wasn't an idiot after all?

She turned her attention back to the lesson. At least she could pretend like she understood some of it.

"Now class, what sort of methodology would we use to hinder the effectiveness of electricity?"

His focus seemed to shift to a familiar blonde haired student. Team JNPR were sitting next to team LENS in this instance.

"Jaune Arc, you seem to be taking notes quite regularly, why don't you try giving an answer."

He seemed to panic as the tutors gaze fell upon him. He desperately looked to his teammates to help but they were far less subtle than Eir's team.

Eventually he came out with an answer.

"Uhh, Proactive watering?" He said. Trying his luck.

"Wrong. Adaptive dampening would have been the correct answer."

She watched the young man slump back into his seat. Eir took a slight amount of pleasure in the fact that she wasn't going to be the only having trouble in classes.

"Now class it's important to note that you can calculate anything, the weather, the odds of winning a bet, and in a huntsmen's case, the outcome of battle. In order to do this one must have develop a keen knack for mathematics. With this a huntsmen can calculate situations such the size of a grim population, the range falloff for their chosen arsenal and even the amount of damage their aura can withstand from oncoming damage. Hence why we are focussing on this subject today."

 _Science AND math? Are you trying to give me a brain haemorrhage?!_

"So with this in mind, let's talk algorithms and equations!" The man seemed to say it as if they were switching something entertaining. His students on the other hand were less than entertained by that prospect.

Another rush of air celebrated the presence of Oobleck. Once again Eir found her teachers gaze once more.

"Miss Eir, could you describe for us the kind of equation that would be used to calculate this kind of resistance?" He pointed to one of the scrawls on the blackboard, a mathematical formula or something. They may have well been ancient hieroglyphics to her

She spared a desperate glance at Neptune. He seemed to give a very subtle shake of his head, his expression telling her that he didn't have a clue either.

This time she was screwed.

"I'm sorry I don't really know a lot about…well any of that stuff."

She braced herself for a scolding. Crap, first day of class and was already failing…

"That's fine my dear, you are a transfer student after all, you're bound to be lacking in parts of your education this semester. But fret not! I will make you sure we get you up to speed." The teacher zipped back to the middle of the room "Now where were we? Ah yes the-"

Eir gave another sigh of relief.

The lecture continued on for a while, luckily Oobleck focussed on a different section of the class room for a while. Any questions he did give them were swiftly answered with a fair amount of group effort.

Well, classes would be more difficult than she thought. But maybe with these guy's it would at least be bearable.

Hmm, maybe there was some stock in this whole _team_ thing?

After some time the bell sounded and proclaimed that lesson had ended. The students fled outwards into the hall, eager to be free of Ooblecks mind boggling theories.

 _Right,_ she thought, _that was lesson one, now it's time for the next…_

»»» »»»

Once again Sun dragged Lucian into the seat. He seemed slightly more lucid this time, but distant nevertheless.

Eir also settled into the tiered seating. The classrooms were always the same layout, but each teacher seemed to have their own taste in decoration. In Oobleck's case it was stacks of scientific papers and scattered notes, in professors Ports case it was illustrations of grim and various samples of reading material. Apparently he seemed to have a thing for stories.

Eir felt a bit relieved in that knowledge. Maybe this port guy's teaching was a little more laid back?

"Welcome class. In reference to last week we will be continuing with case study regarding the historic battle known as the second siege of Thornscrest. An exciting tale indeed. I trust you have all kept your notes from last lesson?" He seemed to pause for a moment as if expecting a proper response, after a small murmur from the class he resumed speaking "Excellent. Now then, where were we? Ah yes, the skirmish between a company of privateer huntsmen and a roaming horde of grim…"

Eir made herself a bit more comfortable as her tutor continued on.

She looked around. People's attention dropped as the class got started, it was the complete opposite of the focus they had showed Oobleck earlier.

It was kind of weird. Other students seemed to slouch down and rest their heads on the desk. Suddenly Lucian's sleepy demeanour didn't seem so out of place.

Eir scratched her head. Surely he couldn't be that bad right?

 _ **Sometime later…**_

Eir continued to count the minutes. Professor Port found himself going on multiple tangents as the class went on. What started as a real world example ended in a full blown story, from that full blown story, a novel. Port seemed to regard his tales as something to be cherished. Eir would rather burn said stories if any paperback versions did exist…

Their teacher –or story teller- carried on with his tale. Eir could only stare at the clock as he rambled on.

"The road was long and perilous but I stayed my course despite the constant danger of grim. Why I remember the time I stumbled onto an orchard–"

Ten minutes…

"-Now the farm hands were very hospitable, as you can expect after being saved from such a dashing young huntsmen. But the night wasn't over yet, despite the reprieve I remained vigilant and made sure that those villagers were kept from harm's way-"

Twenty minutes…

Eir thought dying of boredom was just a saying. But now she realised this was actually going to be the case. She looked around, seeing Team JNPR dealing with it quite well. She had been introduced to them the other day.

"Ren." Eir whispered "Have you got your guns on you at the moment?

"No, why?"

"I want this lesson to end. And at this point I'm heavily debating suicide."

He gave small dry laugh and continued watching his tutor ramble on. If he was bored then he was hiding it very well.

Eir huffed then cast her gaze back to the clock. She laid her arms on the desk and rested her head on them. Now seemed like the perfect time for a nap.

Thirty minutes…

"-So I think what I'm trying to say is that perhaps it is best not to perform acts of heroism under the effects of alcohol, even if the farm hands made exquisite cider."

A bell ringing snapped Eir alert. She couldn't imagine a sweeter sound.

"Hm, it appears we've ran out of time. Oh well, perhaps next time we will pick up where we left of."

 _Yeah, and maybe I'll bring a pair of headphones next time…_

She shook herself of from the snooze and got up from desk along with her teammates. Once again the students hurried out into the open hall. The space quickly filling up with students eager to go to lunch.

"Thought that lesson would never end." Lucian said.

"I know right, I wonder if…" Eir paused then turned around to the insomniac "Hey you're not a walking zombie anymore!"

"Yeah I become lucid when noon rolls around." He replied.

"Oh…Right…"

 _You are a weird one, aren't you?_

"So are Ports stories always so…?" She struggled for a term

"Long winded? You don't even know the half of it. God help us when we get a double lesson next week." He said

The four of them began to stroll down one of beacons many long stretching corridors, it was actually pretty easy to get lost now that she thought about it

"Well on the Brightside I got a good nap during the lecture." She said, stretching out and cracking her neck.

"Lucky you." Lucian noted, also trying to shake off the remaining fatigue

"Well it's over now," Wukong said whilst walking backwards and regarding his friends "don't know about you guys but food sounds really good"

"Agreed, let's get some lunch." Neptune nodded.

Oh that's right, they skipped breakfast on the account of sleeping in. Though Eir was used to missing a meal or two in her years. She followed suite as the hallway slowly became more crowded.

After some time the four of them went with the herd of students into the cafeteria, Eir could already smell the food wafting in from the kitchens before she even got in line.

It took a while before she could actually grab a tray and start pilling up food, it seems lunch times were the busiest period in Beacon. Understandable considering what was offered.

Her eyes eagerly scanned the spread infront of her

Burgers, sandwiches, a selection of curry's and soups. All of which smelled and looked absolutely delicious. Aside from fully prepared meals there was also a buffet style option, offering slices of beef, chicken, fish and even an assortment of salad, though that was relatively untouched despite the mass of student coming through.

After a quick internal debate between eyes and stomach Eir decided on a hot chicken sandwich loaded with peppers, onions and cheese. It was even served with a small side salad and a chocolate truffle for dessert. Her mouth had already began to water before she could even find a table. After a few moments of looking lost she spotted Sun flagging her over to a nearby table.

She slid next to Wukong and got herself comfortable. The boys had already began eating and idly chatting amongst themselves. A great idea she thought, bringing the sandwich up to her mouth and taking the first bite.

Eir had heard plenty stories of school food being bad. She could quite happily slap the people who had been telling those stories.

In a short amount of time the sandwich was already being demolished at predatory rate. Eir savoured every bite, the kitchen staff definitely knew what they were doing behind those doors.

She was about to take another chunk out of it but hesitated upon realizing how quickly she was eating. The guys had only just started theirs.

Eir played with a bit of bread and turned her attention to the their conversation

"-Just don't see how many lessons I can take with him." Neptune said "I mean if I have to be _that_ alert to keep up with him in the mornings I'll have to drink as much coffee as he does!"

"Fairly sure you would die if that were the case" Wukong noted

"Could be worse." Lucian said

"How so?" Neptune responded

"Could've had Glynda teaching us. If you take a nap in her class I can guarantee you won't wake up"

"Tch, she's nothing. If you want strict you guys should have seen my old tutors at Haven. Had one of them use a cane against me once as corporal punishment" Neptune said

"Oh no they do that at beacon too. Gylndas crop isn't just for show."

"Didn't know corporal punishment was even allowed at schools" Eir added

"It isn't" They both said in unison.

With that they turned back to their lunch.

Eir was about to do the same before she was interrupted by Wukong.

"So what do you think of the food?" He said, gesturing to the almost eaten chicken sandwich.

Eir gave a kind of nervous chuckle. Sun simply smiled and picked up one of his dishes, a small slice of cheesecake.

"Trade ya?" He said, nodding towards the banana on her plate.

She looked back to it. Apparently each plate of food came with a choice of fruit. Eir grabbed a banana as an off handed thought.

"Sure"

After a quick trade Eir found herself contented with what she received.

"Pleasure doing business with you" He said as he began to peel the fruit.

 _A banana for a slice of cheesecake? That aint business, I just fleeced you._

She scoffed down the last of the sandwich, eager to begin work on two sets of dessert.

 _I could get used to this…_ She thought as she dived back into her lunch

Time went on, and the students used the free time to their leisure. The cafeteria buzzed with all kinds of conversation, their table was no different.

"-Nah it'll all work out, trust me." Said Lucian whilst popping a mint in his mouth and slipping the packet back into his hoodie pocket.

"Whatever you say. I just hope we don't get into another food fight like last time..." Neptune replied

"Food fight?" She enquired

"Long story." He said

"Whatever" She sighed, stretching out and feeling delightfully full "Well in any case I'm just glad were done for today."

"What do you mean?" Sun asked

"Well we're free now right?"

"Uh, no. We got another two classes still."

"What?"

She pulled out her scroll and quickly thumbed through till she found the time table. She had indeed two more lessons left. One of which was with Oobleck again.

She glanced at the clock, crestfallen. It was only midday, though it didn't feel like it.

"But…But it's been ages…"

"Yeah…" Lucian mused "Port's lessons have that effect on people."

The bell rang, suddenly the herd of students began to migrate again. Team LENS included

"Come on, were not done yet."

This time it was Lucian who dragged Eir by the collar.

Suddenly that bell didn't sound as sweet anymore.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10:**

 **In Too Deep**

After having their minds melted by Oobleck again Team LENS quickly went on to the next lesson for the day. Luckily their last lesson was a free period, in Eir's mind that meant an hour off but her team seemed to have other plans…

She joined the boys as they entered the room they were after. One of beacons many practice rooms by the looks of things, one that emitted the sounds of light contact sparing that echoed down the corridor they had just left. Shortly after arriving her team quickly abandoned her and split off to do their own thing. Apparently eager for another sparing match like the one yesterday. That just left Eir all by her lonesome.

"Thanks guys…" She muttered to herself, feeling neglected. Now what she supposed to do?

She huffed then took a quick look around the place. The room was definitely tailored for pretty serous training. It was around the size of a small football court with several floor markings to show areas that students could use at their leisure. The walls, floor and ceiling even had steel plate sections running through them. Probably a testament to an overzealous student with an overpowered weapon. Eir would have loved to hear the story behind that one

She pressed her back to one of the walls as she scanned the room, old habits die hard. It appeared that there was an instructor watching in one of the corners to make sure mock battles don't get too intense. Sparing or not a hit with an oversized scythe would put you down quicker than a pall bearer with the runs. On that note she looked over at Ruby who was showing Nora the importance of a good cutting tool instead of blunt weaponry.

The girl cleaved through one of the practice dummies with startling ease, Nora pounded the neighbouring dummy with her hammer as if to prove a point. Choices of weapon aside Eir still couldn't work out how they could move a massive hammer and scythe around like it was nothing…

She looked down at her sickles that she had retrieved earlier, along with her small grey single shoulder sling bag that contained her crossbow bolts. The idea was that her team would use this time to train. Though they had left her to her own devices anyway. Suppose she should at least pretend like she was going to do something, the question was what…

Maybe have a go at one of those training dummies herself? Nah that would feel kind of silly. Or maybe try some kind of weapon exercise…though Eir couldn't see how that would help. Plus her type of practice drills would probably look ridiculous next to people like Pyrrha.

She had to feel for Jaune on that point. Eir didn't know him very well but it was obvious that he barely had any idea what he was doing. That was kind of reliving for her in a way. Where were those guys anyway?

After another quick glance around she found team JNPR taking up one of the corners in the far back, directly left of the wall she had been leaning on. It appeared that they were having a kind of sparing session. Eir moved over to get a better view, eventually standing next Pyrrha as they both watched Jaune's display of hand to hand combat against Ren. Needless to say it was less than impressive.

"Well...it's hard to read I suppose..." Pyrrha said as Eir settled next to her.

It looked like he was trying to adopt Ren's fighting style, though it was very clear who was the master and who was the student in this case. If Jaune waved his arms about anymore he'd be imitating some kind of voodoo ritual.

"Looks like drunk yoga." Eir observed.

Jaune moved in on his foe with a kind of awkward chopping motion, Ren simply stepped to the side and gave a light jab to his shoulder.

"Ow!" He whined

"That makes it zero to ten. Care for one more bout?" Ren asked politely.

Jaune reluctantly nodded and got into a weird kind of stance. Apparently eager to lose. The two began their bout one more time.

"So, what's this? Ninja training?" Eir asked Pyrrha. Eyes still settled on the mock battle in front of them.

"Well. After discovering that Jaune had next to no close quarters training we decided to show him the ropes…"

Jaune took another blow. This time to the chin.

"Are you sure that's a good idea? There's a bit of a skill gap here…" Eir noted.

Pyrrha shrugged "We all have to start somewhere I suppose"

The red head turned to the moss top.

"How about you? What kind of close quarters training do you have Eir?"

"Mines a very exotic kind of urban martial art…" she began

"Is that so?" Pyrrha's interest seemed to pique.

"Yeah" Eir smiled "You know, the type that revolves around stuff like biting, gouging, crotch kicking, finger breaking…

"Oh, I see…"

Suddenly Jaune was tossed toward them, sent tumbling across the floor and eventually coming to a stop at their feet.

"I said not the face…" Jaune griped whilst rubbing his chin. He then looked up to find the two faces looking down at him. "Ladies…" He said, giving them a rehearsed wink.

"Hey there champ." Eir said. Hands on hips and an amused expression on her face.

Pyrrha helped him up from the ground. "Maybe we should stick with weapon drills for now?" she offered

"Yeah okay…" Jaune said, almost pouting.

Eir stuck around to watch them continue on with their training. By the looks of things Pyrrha was a kind of mentor to Jaune, which made sense considering her ability. Though it didn't take long until he started eating dirt again.

In one quick motion Pyrrha instantly floored her adversary with a textbook sweep of her spear. Earning a wince from Eir as Jaune's head cracked off the steel floor.

A couple students around them snickered at the show. A few thinly veiled gibes were made at his innate lack of ability. Either Jaune didn't notice or just didn't care.

 _So much for all that talk of student camaraderie…_

Though she supposed it makes sense that students would be ridiculed for shit they didn't know. All the more reason not to participate…

He wearily got up from the floor whilst rubbing his noggin. Jaune immediately withdrew the hand after wincing from the pain. He drew back his fingers to find small droplets of blood on his fingertips.

Pyrrha was quick to step up.

"I'm sorry" She immediately said, bringing a hand up to his face. An almost motherly affection. Hm… no, Eir thought. There was something more there.

"Its fine, these things happen" He responded weakly, he was probably seeing stars at the moment.

"You still haven't fully grasped how Aura works have you?"

"Well…No, but I'm getting there…I think."

He gave another wince as Pyrrha touched a tender spot on his face.

"Maybe we should take you to the infirmary…" She said.

"I can help." Eir stepped up, seizing the opportunity

"Thanks Eir, but I think its best if…" Pyrrha trailed off as Eir ignored her words and marched right up to Jaune.

With delicate precision Eir carefully checked the broken skin, judging just how hard the impact was on the surrounding tissue. Afterwards she went to check his pupils.

"No cranial inflammation, no signs of concussion…" She said quietly to herself.

Pyrrha reluctantly stepped back as Eir did her work. After a quick examination Eir fumbled for supplies in her sling bag. She carefully applied a green band aid to his forehead then playfully tussled his hair like some sort of kid.

"All good you big baby." She said cheerfully

Jaune quickly brought a hand up to un-ruffle his hair "Thanks Eir."

"Don't mention it" She simply replied whilst doing up the zip on her bag.

Aside from an assortment of crossbow bolts it was also filled with medical odds and ends. Admittedly she had no real medical training, but with the rate she could tear through medical journals Eir liked to think she was at least the most medically trained in the room. Instructor included.

She had even tried cannulation after a choice theft from an ambulance. Her older sister had bet that she couldn't do it even with twenty chances. Nineteen chances and a bloody forearm later and she eventually managed it.

Hm…Eir never did see that money…

"So Eir. Care to spar? I think Jaune could do with a break" Pyrrha asked, snapping Eir from her thoughts.

 _Oh hell no! If I wanted to end up black and blue today I would've French kissed a laser printer!_

"No thanks," She started, "I think I'm gonna try some target practice for a bit anyways"

That was a good idea actually. A bit of target practice couldn't hurt. Eir wasn't a bad shot, but ranged combat didn't require as much movement compared to melee. Less chance to make an ass of herself she figured.

With a few quick words Eir left the group to their own devices and made her way to a new section of the training space. This part of the room looked dedicated to ranged weaponry. It had a kind of small lane system with circular targets at the very end. Luckily no one was hanging around the shooting gallery which meant that she had the place all to herself.

She looked down to her two sickles once again

 _Time to put you guys to good use_

As she pressed the back of the handles together her weapons immediately shifted into its crossbow form. Shortly after she walked up to the firing line and pointed it towards one of the targets. Eir pulled the trigger, feeling the familiar thud of the bolt shunting forwards and hearing the warble of the bolt shaft planting itself into her target.

 _Bullseye…_

Though to be fair it wasn't far, fifteen meters to be exact. But these were the only ranged targets in the room that she could spot. Maybe there was a better practice area someplace else?

Eir reached into her shoulder bag and collected another bolt. A moment later another target was greeted by the cold steely embrace of a finely pointed tip. The bolt penetrating through its surface as though it were a needle tearing through skin.

As this continued her thoughts began to drift. By some miracle she was allowed into beacon and had now began to do regular student activates, yet despite this it felt as though she hadn't actually accomplished anything. Aside from student loans -which she immediately seized- there wasn't any additional income for her family, and on that note Eir and her home was still in the same state it was in before, perhaps in an even riskier position that it once was. Who was going to help keep things afloat back home? Her sisters had always depended on her, just like Eir had once depended on Faye...

She shook loose the thoughts by putting a hole in another target.

They would be fine. Things would be hard, but they would endure, as her family had always done.

Eir reached a hand into her bag then realised that she had ran out of regular shots. She sighed and moved to collect the bolts. After pulling them free with some difficultly she turned back around only to find Neptune standing in her previous firing positon.

"Sup" He said happily, arms folded, a pleasant smile on his lips. So sure of himself…

"Hey" She simply greeted.

Eir took note of the Rifle on his back as she began to approach him "You planning on shooting me?"

"No, well, you don't have to worry about me anyway. Lucian might be another story on the other hand"

She gave a frown at his comment.

"Eh, long story." He said shrugging.

"You guys seem to have quite a few of those…" She said as she fumbled with one of the bolts and came to a stop at the firing line "Anyway what do you want?"

"You looked a little lonely, thought you could do with some company."

She turned back to take a look at her handy work. "Come to admire my skills?"

"I dunno, I've seen better…"

"Is that so?"

A sly grin struck his features

In one fluid motion he drew his rifle from his back, shouldering it immediately and taking out the adjacent targets with a speed that would have made even the most slickest of gunslingers jealous. Each round that cracked through the air had gone clean through the very center of the targets.

"Not bad…" she was forced to admit

"You should see me on a good day, besides targets like these are easy to hit with this thing." He patted his rifle like a faithful hound as he said it. "You did pretty well considering yours I guess."

"You insulting my weapon?" she immediately quipped.

"No, don't get me wrong, fifteen metres is pretty good for a crossbow that small." He responded.

"The Tinkers told me that this was the best size for my kind of weapon design" She argued.

"Yeah, well, that's because it's all dependant on the build and stature of the wielder."

"You calling me short now?" Eir quipped again

"Not short, just uh…vertically challenged." Neptune said with a slight grin. Eir could feel that cocky nature of his bleed through that comment…

She was going to enjoy watching him eat those words.

"All right hotshot how about we make a bet?" She challenged.

"Oh feeling lucky are we? All right, what are we betting? Money? Favours? Last night's left over pizza?"

"Even better. Pride. Whoever wins gets the title of best shot in team LENS"

Neptune couldn't help but smile at that action. Eir knew that would appeal to his ego.

"All right Eir, it's on. But let's move to the actual practice ranges, make it more interesting."

She agreed. And after a moment of walking and boasting they entered a new room. This one was designed the same but more rectangular, and with the entirety of its length used as a dedicated range in contrast to the previous room. All in all it offered up quite a shooting gallery for a number of ranged weapons. Looks like there was a dedicated range after all.

"Three targets each." He said as he pointed to the cardboard grim cut outs down range "one point for limbs, two points for the torso, and five points to the head. Sound good?"

She nodded.

They flipped a coin to decide who would start. Well, Eir flipped a coin. A double sided one more specifically.

"All right, suppose it makes sense that the rookie goes first." He said, scratching his head slightly.

"You won't be saying that after I beat you" She returned, strutting up to the firing line.

The targets were evenly spaced, set out at twenty, thirty and forty meters distances. This would be a challenge.

She loaded a bolt into her weapon then regarded it for a moment. This was a lot different from shooting cans in the backstreets, but Eir was determined to win nevertheless.

Crossbow raised, Eir lined up her first shot.

The first bolt managed to go clean through the targets head. The second bolt dipped low however and only scored a hit to the torso.

"No pressure" Neptune said coolly as she loaded her last shot and moved onto the next and furthest target.

She did her best to steady her hand. Though it pained her to admit it Neptune was right, this was a bit of stretch for her weapon _and_ abilities.

Eir exhaled and raised her weapon slightly higher, trying to predict the arc. With a quick squeeze of the trigger the bolt was loosed. A thud later and it planted itself firmly in between the Grimm's groin region, the worst kind of blow to the torso by a guy's estimation.

"I wonder who you were thinking of for that one…" Neptune mused.

"Oh no one in particular…" She said, giving him a wink. Though in truth the shot was a fluke, Eir was aiming for the head. Hm, though technically speaking the bolt found a kind of head…

"My turn then…" Neptune said, stepping up to the line.

She crossed her arms, tucking the bolts under them and waiting for his display of shooting.

Neptune took aim. With a crack of his rifle the first shot landed with the same ease as his earlier demonstration.

 _I'm in trouble here…_

She snuck a bit closer to him as lined up his next shot. Eir took note of the tension of his trigger finger, waiting for her opportunity…

As he attempted to fire she quickly jabbed him with the pointy end of one of the cross bow bolts. A moment and a streak of light later the target remained unharmed, a smoking dent in the wall behind empathising his miss.

"Hey!" He immediately shot.

"What?" Eir replied innocently. A very thin smile on her lips.

"You know what…" He said, eyes squinting at her.

Once more he lined up next shot, this time a few steps away from her. He looked over his shoulder to gauge her again, a look as if saying 'I know what you up to'.

Eir continued to feign innocence with a small grin.

Neptune's focus went back to the target. He lined up his third and final shot, at the same time Eir was keen to note that trigger finger of his…

The muscles in his hand twinged slightly. She took the moment.

"Achoo!" Eir 'sneezed'

As Neptune flinched another bolt of light found its home in another panel of reinforced platting.

"That's cheating!" He quickly snapped.

"I sneezed! It couldn't be helped. Plus you're the one who reacted."

"Yeah but-"

"'Yeah but'- nothing" She interrupted "Now I'm not good at math. But I'm sure that nine is a bigger number than five."

"Should have known you'd do something like this" He grumbled.

"Don't be a sore loser. Now who's the best shot in team LENS?" She said, hand on her hips, awaiting his response not so patiently.

Neptune muttered something under his breath.

"What was that?"

"You are…"

"I'm what?"

"You're the best shot in team LENS…" He said softly, as if pained.

Eir stepped closer, putting a hand up to one of her wolven ears "Now I've got good hearing, but I still didn't quite catch that. Could you say it a bit louder?"

"You're the best shot in team LENS!" He snapped.

Eir threw her hands up in a grand gesture. "Ahhh…" She said, basking his those words "Finally recognition for my brilliance…"

After soaking it in she pointedly turned to Neptune's sulking face. "I bet that stings a bit." She taunted.

Neptune silently fumed for a moment up until breaking point. "Ah screw it!" He griped "Double or nothing! This time I'll-"

Thunder sounded in the room. Once, twice, three times. The heads of the practice dummies around them damn near imploding as the sound continued shake and reverberate the room. Then all was silent.

The ping of a shell hitting the floor near the entrance caught their attention.

They turned around to find a familiar red caped student standing in the doorway, pushing a fresh clip into her weapon.

"You might be the best shot in team Lens but just know that I'm the best shot in beacon." Ruby said proudly, cradling her weapon like a proud mother.

Bits of Grimm littered the floor. Some of the debris still fluttered around them like confetti. Not one of the target dummies in the training room was spared. All of which were now missing their heads. Eir turned around to regard the carnage Ruby had left behind. It was a good thing that reinforced plating was there, if not, that 50cal round probably would of kept going till it hit the end of the room opposite.

 _No arguments there…_ Eir thought numbly. Her ears still ringing.

Ruby gave a small giggle before leaving, apparently contented with her little show.

"Remind me not to piss her off…" Neptune remarked

"Yeah…"

Eir looked down to her weapon again

 _I'm way out of my depth here…_

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **So it should be said that I only discovered the official colour naming rule until AFTER writing up some of this .**_

 _ **In my defence I think I have loosely followed the rules and I am quite proud of what I've made. So I thought in this A.N I would give you a little insight on my characters N stuff.**_

 _ **Eir:**_

 _ **Eir is a feminine name that can be found in Norse, Icelandic, and Norwegian mythology. Strictly speaking the name translates to 'Mercy' and is also the name of a Norse deity of healing and medicine. This goddess was often associated with the colour green.**_

 _ **A rather good fit in my humble opinion.**_

 _ **Her second name is unknown right now for her own story reasons. To be honest I'm not even sure if I'll ever state it. It's not anything special, she's not going to be related to Ozpin or something stupid, it's merely a back story thing. Trust me.**_

 _ **Lucian Azure:**_

 _ **Lucian is a masculine name that translates to 'Man of Light' in Latin (If I remember correctly). Annoyingly this name can also be translated to alternate things but in his case the name stay's true to that first translation. I actually had this name in mind for a while.**_

 _ **As for Azure, well it's blue, nuff said.**_

 _ **Team LENS:**_

 _ **Hmph, this is where I feel conflicted, but overall happy with what I came out with.**_

 _ **I would like to say that a lens intercepts colour and light and refracts it. So in a sense it's chromatic, loosely fitting the colour naming rule.**_

 _ **Additionally I like to thinks it's kinda poetic, it intercepts other colours I.E other teams and enhances them. Like a camera taking a picture and capturing a moment, or a fanfiction writer writing a piece on the characters he likes. :3**_

 _ **(I never started this story with the goal of a pure OC story, I just wanted to focus on the cast in Rwby. I just needed some characters to help view them in a different light)**_

 _ **The name has a bit of synergy as well. Lucian's semblance is light and Eir's semblance is ocular, sort of adhering to the whole LENS Theme.**_

 _ **Or maybe this is me desperately trying to defend the best combination of letters I could find. : D**_

 _ **As always feel free to comment/shout, etc.**_


	11. Chapter 11 part 1

**Chapter 11 Part 1**

 **A Minor Hiccup**

"Never again…" Neptune muttered, quickly collapsing onto his bed.

Team LENS had just come back to their dorm room after having the majority of their day being taken up from another set of monotonous lessons. At first Lucian thought things would get easier as they got used to beacons teaching schedule, but after only a few days they could all agree that this semester wasn't going to get any easier, especially if they were going to have days like today.

"Which part?" Lucian asked wearily "When Port gave us an extra homework assignment? Or when Glynda replaced our lunch with detention?"

"All of it" he grumbled "the homework, the detention the everything!" Neptune continued to gripe and buried his face in a pillow. Lucian followed suit by laying out onto the makeshift sofa, stretching out his tired limbs. At least now they had the rest of the day to themselves. If Lucian was able he would've liked to have spent the day sleeping, but lounging on the sofa for a few hours would do the trick…

"Did you get any of what Oobleck was saying?" Eir said, parking herself on the end of her bed.

"Nah, made as much sense as Nora on a caffeine drip" Lucian mused as he settled on the sofa, abstinently reaching into his hoodie to pull out his pack of mints. Almost a way of treating himself after putting up with so much crap today. Who'd of thought that becoming a student would be so tiring?

"Hey, can I get one of those?" Eir said, with a hand already outstretched.

He sighed, then threw one over to her after popping one in his mouth. For a moment the four of them stayed quiet, savouring the peaceful tranquility of their room. Safe from the rambling of professors and the constant tide of written work. Lucian shuddered at the thought of another lecture, his sanity probably wouldn't take another hit.

"So what do you guys wanna do now?" Neptune asked, breaking the silence.

"Right now I'm content with lying down in the sun like a cat" Lucian replied simply, sinking deeper into the folded mattress. He had to hand it to himself, his hastily built sofa was really comfy…

"That's sounds great…" Eir agreed, now laying down and cuddling a pillow "Plus you could do with a tan. Hell didn't you say you were a light binder? Shouldn't that help your pale complexion?"

"The complete opposite actually…" Lucian grumbled. He rolled over lazily, noticing Wukong standing by the window, seemingly undaunted by the fatigue of today's lessons. He'd been pretty quiet today now that he thought about it. A rare occurrence. In fact, it looked like he was plotting something. Or perhaps scheming…?

He regarded his friend with scrutinous eyes. _Hm…No scheming looks different, he was plotting something…definitely plotting._

"I know that look." Lucian directed at him.

"I think the girls are planning something." Sun replied without looking.

"What exactly?"

"Not sure" He said, shrugging. "But I know a quick way of finding out…" Wukong walked over to the door. A hand placed on its knob as he turned to regard his lounging patterns with a mischievous grin. "You guys wanna come with?"

Lucian sighed and slowly got up. Ignoring the protests from his weary muscles "Might as well. Someone has to run damage control like usual."

Wukong's gaze then moved onto Neptune.

"Can I get five more minutes at least?" He grumbled

"But we might miss the girls if we wait any longer" Sun said, moving over to pull Neptune out of bed by his legs. "Come on!"

"All right! All right!" He moaned, shaking his legs free then standing up.

Sun stood with his hands on his hips and a victorious expression on his face. "Cool. That makes three."

The boys turned to find Eir's lounging form.

"Eir?" Sun asked.

"Count me out, I've got things to do." She simply said. Though her lazy tone argued otherwise.

"Oh yeah?" Sun challenged

"Yeah" She started, "I'm going to run some errands in town. I'll be back later tonight probably" She then began to bury her face in the pillow. Lying still and comfortable. Lucian couldn't help but be envious of her position.

"You sure? I mean you could join us later after we figure what's going on…" Sun pressed.

A muffled voice sounded through the pillow. Lucian couldn't make out the words but he was sure it was a protest featuring some hurtful language. The boys stood there awkwardly for a moment.

"Her loss" Wukong shrugged. He then turned to regard his less than enthusiastic teammates "Well? Come on! We got mischief to make!"

»»»

Through some sort of inspired initiative Sun had decided that the best way to get information was to snoop. And said snooping apparently required them to go dicking about on top of the roof of their dorm building, specifically somewhere above team Rwby's room.

"-and even though we got away we haven't been able to show our face's there ever again!" Neptune carried on the story.

"Hey that was just one time." Wukong replied. Periodically checking over the lip of the building as they walked.

"And you give that exact same response every time you do something like this" Neptune continued.

He had a point there. No matter the severity of the situation Sun never seemed all too phased by the outcome, and out of all their shenanigans that one probably ranked somewhere in their 'Wrong time, wrong place' top ten list. That Ice cream parlour would never serve any of its delicious goodness ever again. And the place was _still_ out of business even after the dust settled, both kinds of dust in that case now that Lucian thought about it

"Details..." Sun said while waving a dismissive hand. "Ah, found em." He crouched over the lip of the roof and took a closer gander at the room just below them.

"Now what are you doing?" Neptune moaned

Sun ignored his friend, and instead took a step over the edge. Beginning his descent onto a nearby tree. The leaves seemingly swallowing him whole. His head popped out of the foliage a moment later "Climbing duh."

"What about us?" Neptune said, gesturing to Lucian and himself.

"You can guys can climb as well."

"Yeah but…its high man."

"Didn't realise you were afraid of heights too…" Sun muttered and dove back into the foliage, disappearing admits the leaves.

"Hey-wait up!" Neptune growled in annoyance after he got no response. He then noticed Lucian who had started to clamber over the ledge. The insomniac paused for a moment to regard him.

"Well?" Lucian began "you coming?"

"Of for-Ugh. Fine, whatever!" He threw his hands up and begrudgingly began to make his own way down

Lucian left Neptune to his own devices and started to focus more on the climb. After clambering for a bit he found the spot he wanted then teleported down onto the secondary edge of the buildings wall, just above the dorm rooms window frame. Luckily Beacons choice in masonry meant that there was plenty of ways to scale its buildings. Now, where did his friend wander off too...? After a quick look around he caught Wukong jumping from his tree and into the room. From the sounds of things Ruby 'n' co had already noted his presence. Though he couldn't quite hear their conversation from up here.

Lucian shifted downwards slightly. Grabbing the top ledge of the window frame and lowering himself upside down to listen to the conversation. From the looks of things they hadn't noticed his head peeking in from the top of their window yet.

"- _We_ are going to investigate the situation…As a team…" Blake said.

"Sorry Sun, we don't wanna get friends involved if we don't have to" Ruby added

"Pssh, that's dumb. You should always get friends involved" Wukong argued

"Yeah, it's way more fun" Lucian chimed in

The four immediately looked up, looking startled by yet another intruder.

"Lucian?" Ruby said looking up to the top of the window.

He let go of the ledge then fell into a short flip, righting himself in the air. A flash later he appeared standing next to Wukong in their dorm room.

"Sup guys." He greeted.

"What-how did you…" The ice queen started

"Don't worry about it he does that all the time" Sun waved a hand.

"Yeah I do that all the time."

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose in annoyance. "Well" She huffed "Is anyone else coming?"

"Well, uh, actually…" Lucian awkwardly scratched his head, turning back towards the window. The four eventually rounded the corner of the window to find Neptune with his back pressed up against the buildings wall, standing on one of its narrow ridges.

"Sup" He said.

"How did you even get up here?" Ruby asked.

"I have my ways." He looked down then quickly readjusted his feet. "Seriously though, can I come in? We're like, really high up right now…"

»»»

"Well, we wanna help, isn't that enough?" Sun continued to argue with Weiss. It seemed they we're all pretty set on doing this themselves though Wukong was doing his best to convince them otherwise.

"Look, its appreciated and everything but are you guys even cut out for this kind of thing?" Blake said.

"Hey, I'll have you know that we've been causing trouble in this city long before we met you guys." He replied "So Yeah, we're not gonna take no for an answer. We're coming with."

The girls exchanged looks with varying amount of enthusiasm.

"Safety in numbers?" Yang shrugged

"More like idiocy in quantity…" Weiss grumbled.

The four of them looked back to the boys. They simply stood in place and tried their best to look somewhat dependable. That took a bit of effort actually.

"Pretty please?" Sun begged. Giving his best attempt at a puppy face.

The girls looked at each other once more, expressions conflicted but coming to some sort of agreement nonetheless.

"Ugh, fine…" Weiss eventually caved. "It's okay I guess"

"All right then. Now that that's settled, let's talk tactics!" Ruby piped up, eager to get things started. "Maybe we should split of into teams? You know, divide and conquer?"

"Suppose that made sense" Yang nodded.

"But who goes with who..." Ruby scratched her chin, eyeing up the people in the room.

Anyone who was forced into team activates whether it be in education or work would understand this type of situation. Lucian eyes immediately caught Yang's, with a subtle nod a silent agreement was exchanged during their gaze. He was looking forward to pairing up with her again. They made a good team before so this would be perfect. Well, maybe not the best players of board games…but hopefully a good team in any case. Plus he had wanted the opportunity to talk with her again.

"All right I got it" Ruby began. "me and Lucian will go with Weiss. Sun you can go with Blake. And Neptune, you can go with yang. Everyone good?"

"Actually ruby, why don't you go with Yang, ha. After all she is your sister." Weiss said

"But Weiss, the tower and campus is huge, we need three people. Who would replace me then?"

"I guess Neptune could come with me." She tried her luck.

Another silent exchange was made, this time between Neptune and Lucian.

"Yeah, I could swap with Neptune if it helps." Lucian spoke up.

"But the tower is huge and you know beacon better. Plus I really really wanna see it" she pressed

"Yeah but I could always give you a map-"

"Nah, this is getting too complicated" Ruby shook her head and quickly grabbed Lucian and Weiss by their collars

"Come on Team! Operation Kickassery is a go!"

Despite her size ruby quite easily pulled the two of them out the room.

"But…but!" Weiss began, a hand outstretched towards the group.

The red head didn't seem to hear her cries and simply continued to drag her less willing partners in tow

»»» § »»»

The back streets of downtown vale…An almost literal shit pit for everything rotten in this city. In her early life Eir was fearful whenever she was forced to set foot in these places. As she grew older she had learned to replace that fear with hate. As even more time went on Eir eventually knew every nook a cranny of this disgusting place. Its social circles, the dirty tricks of the trade, and all the other things that kinder people would shy away from. It was safe to say that these streets were what made her what she was today. So when she set foot in them now?

Well. Now she still hated them…

"No deal." Bricks said, plonking the rocket launcher back onto the fold out table with a thud.

"Aw come on big man" Eir started

"No deal." He repeated while stifling a cough. "Where did you even get this thing anyway?"

"Trade secrets" She simply said.

In truth she stole it. Just being a Faunus alone could get you into the shadier areas of Vale, most of which were under the banner of the White Fang nowadays. Luckily that meant that they left a lot of equipment lying around. A rocket launcher for example.

"It's still loaded too. And I know those rounds are expensive" Eir pressed.

The arms dealer grumbled then took another look at the weapon. Beginning the process of unloading the rocket from its housing.

She took the moment to regard her old stomping grounds. Bricks and his goons took up stock at another dreary ass alleyway, one where the walls were crammed with so much graffiti it could have been mistaken for an urban art gallery. His van -or his shop- was parked close to the brickwork and safely within the evening shadow. The thing looked like it had gone past its mileage years ago but was somehow still running. Probably to throw off cops at a guess. Eir had heard more than a few stories about Brick's daring escapes and reckless driving.

The technical place of sale was always the van itself. It was practically a mobile armoury given how much hardware he packed into the thing. Bricks kept it moving constantly, only stopping to make trades in random locations. He was meant to be hard to find but Eir had hung around this end of vale for so long that she knew most of his trade routes by now. There were two others that hung around the vehicle, a skinny looking guy who looked addicted to something and a women who looked like she had been chain smoking since childhood. Both of which had a weapon in their hands and an eye on either end of the alleyway.

And then there was the big man himself. Bricks…The guy had a cough dryer than Vacuo's desert and breath twice as deadly. His girth and height rivaled only by his presence of danger, his skinny cohorts only seemed to emphasize the largeness of his frame. It was a wonder he could fit in the driver seat of that van actually. He wore simple khaki combat trousers and a stained white top. The man even had traces of oil and gun lube on his skin, an odd mix with his fading tattoos across his arms.

"It's an older model…" He said noting details that Eir couldn't. Either that, or he was lying to lower the price. "The round is new though…"

He scratched the scars on his shaved head while he thought about her offer, marks from wounds that by rights should have put him down. Some say he got those scars after so many years of smuggling, others say he was an old war vet turned crooked after the Great War. She believed the latter. By the way he held himself Eir could easily picture a grumpy old drill sergeant, especially given how clean his boots were compared to the rest of his dirty utilitarian outfit. But despite everything Bricks was at the very least dependable. Especially when contracted. In fact, that was how Eir got her hands on a weapon build certificate. Without him, Eir wouldn't have Snatch and Grab by her side during her time at Beacon.

"I'd buy the explosive but not the launcher." He concluded, putting the weapon down once more.

"But a rocket launcher's not a rocket launcher without the rocket. Can't you reconsider?"

"You think this is a pawnshop?" He said, waving a hand to his van "Seriously girl, I don't care how much you think it is, I aint payin for that piece of junk. The things practically an antique. Everyone wants atlas branded goods these days, not pre-war stuff."

"Can't you help a girl out? I could really use the mone-"

" 'But my family! I'll do anything for some food mister'" he shook off the crude imitation with a quick cough and sigh. "Listen Earl"

"Eir"

"Whatever! I may not remember your name but I sure as hell remember you scrounging around here back in the day. I've heard it all before. You'll get what I give you." He rounded his van and started to fiddle with something, appearing to have no real interest in Eir's item. She knew better than to believe that.

"What about a trade?" Eir tried her luck.

That seemed to pique his interest. "Go on, trade for what?"

"Work. Let me do a few munitions runs with you, I've done plenty in the past."

"I'm flattered that you would want to work with such an esteemed gent such as myself. But as my associates will tell you there is only so much space in that van of mine." He joked, patting his gut "Plus I really doubt you're qualified to roll with us"

"Oh please, I've done tons of gun running with people, I even helped with that dust raid for Torchwick and Junior a couple weeks back"

Bricks scoffed "Romans a two bit gang leader and Junior's a glorified informant. You think doing a job for those clowns' makes you hot shit?"

"Say what you want, but I bet you did plenty of jobs for them back in the day. Bet you still do." Eir challenged.

Bricks stopped his fiddling and made a low sound. Not quite a growl, not quite a sigh.

"You know I heard the ones who weren't arrested that night were the ones that fucked off early before shit hit the fan. Apparently taking anything they could get their hands on…"

Her ears caught a faint metallic sound coming from the side of the van. One of his henchmen –the addict- levelled a pistol at Eir, his gaze focussed yet uncaring. Her pulse quickened, tension building in her muscles. Her eyes quickly looked back to Bricks. The man was now stroking a very worn but very dangerous looking sawn off. The one she had seen kneecap many an unruly customer.

"Wonder what Roman would give me if I turn in a deserter?" He pondered out loud.

 _Shit shit shit…_

Instinct instantly threatened to take over, she desperately tried to pick out potential escape routes from the corner of her eye. Damnit Bricks always knew what he was doing when it came to trade locations…

 _The roof_ she quickly thought _if I can get grapple onto the roof-_

The portly man suddenly laughed and slapped a hand on one of his smaller cohorts. It was meant to be playful, but from the smaller man's grimace it must have been more painful than anything.

"Chill kid, you think you're the only one to run from a job gone sour? Take a look around" He gestured to his partners in crime, to Eir's relief the addict had lowered his weapon. "We were all street rats once, but now we practically run this end of town."

That was an exaggeration, he sold equipment to those that did. Though supposedly he was doing well for himself these days. She let out a soft sigh to alleviate the anxiety, though her heart was still racing slightly. Days like these reminded her just how close things could get.

Bricks tossed the shotgun back into the side door of the vehicle, causing a clatter of metallic objects to sound off the vans interior. The addict simply rolled his eyes and moved inside to clean up his boss's mess.

"Look, don't get me wrong, a few years ago I would probably take up some hired help, but now I gotta be picky about how I operate. Atlas is bringing in their new line of gear, that means the black markets gonna lose its shit soon. I can't have some street brat screw it up for me."

His eyes turned back to the rocket launcher. As if remembering that they had business to discuss. She took the time to regard the van as he eyeballed her item. Its suspension was under a bit of stress, he was definitely hauling something heavy duty…

"But about this thing…" He said, poking at the weapon.

"Fine, screw it. I'll do half." Eir said.

"Half for the munition? You got yourself a-"

"For both."

He stopped and grumbled, not so silently debating. He was getting a good deal, Bricks was just being too business like for his own good.

"Half and you'll be rid of me." She pressed

"You'll get what I give you. Remember girl?" Bricks growled. The tension filling the air once again. He stomped forwards and towered over her. Eir remembered cowering under that portly shadow of his, even after all these years he still had that air of imminent violence about him. It took a fair bit of effort, but she stood her ground.

"Half." She said clearly. Eyes set on his.

There was a pause, a pause that lasted longer than she would have liked.

Finally the man gave dry laugh, one that emitted that foul stench of his. A small smile cracked his lips.

"You remind me of that older sister of yours" He said poking her in the stomach. Again, it was meant to be playful, but if he poked any harder Eir was fairly sure he could have cracked a rib or two.

"Mac!" He called.

"Yo?"

"Cash."

The addict did as ordered and moved to the front of the van.

"Bit of advice? Don't go looking for gangs that's hiring regulars, they'll think you're a rat. People are on edge at the moment." Bricks said as he gathered the money from his lackey.

He started counting through the notes, each movement pronounced and tantalizing as if it were a piece of meat being dangled in front of a starving pup. Years ago that wouldn't have been too far from the truth.

"Half" He begrudgingly agreed. Proffering the cash to her.

Instinctively she reached out a hand to grab at the money. Eir hesitated just before taking it.

"And why _are_ people on edge?"

"That'll cost you extra." He jeered

Eir scoffed, quickly claiming and re-counting the cash. In the meantime Bricks got the chain-smoker to load their new toy onto the van. It looked like they were gearing up to get moving again. Probably the industrial district at a guess. That was always a hotspot for crap like this. They turned away from her as the two discussed something, giving Eir the moment she needed. In one fluid subtle movement Eir stuffed the cash in her pockets with one hand and at the same time threw a sticky tracker at the underside of the van with the other. A rocket launcher wasn't the only thing she stole from the White Fang today

Brick's goons finally got into the vehicle. Not long after the van rattled into life, sending out a puff of smoke as the engine warmed up. Eir clutched at the cash within her pocket, feeling its weight. At one time this would have seemed like a fortune, now it was just a constant reminder of how much more she needed. One way or another she was going to find a bigger score. Even if that meant tailing an old smuggler or two.

Bricks looked back to Eir before he got in himself.

"I like you girl. But I can't give you a spot on this crew." He said with some degree of honesty, putting a weighty foot into the vans interior. "But if you manage to find some Atlesian military equipment you come to us first. You got that?"

Eir nodded.

Bricks finally climbed into the vehicle. Its suspension crumpling slightly as he settled in. The van began to rattle out of the dingy alleyway shortly after. A hand waved to her out one of its windows "Run along little girl, I've got a busy day ahead of me." Bricks said as the van rounded a corner and drove off into the main streets. Leaving things exactly the way it was as when they first arrived.

 _I bet you do…_ She thought, slipping out her scroll and activating the tracker.

 _And I'll be watching every step._

»»» § »»»

"Wow…I forgot how big the transmit tower looks so close!" Ruby exclaimed, taking in the sight of Beacons CCT.

"You should see the one in atlas." Weiss commented

Ruby, Weiss and Lucian continued their walk towards the tower after taking the scenic route along the way. Once again Lucian played the part of tour guide as they navigated campus. He debated charging for these little tours he gave, he could probably make a nice little sum at the rate he was going.

"That was the first one right?"

"Correct" Weiss nodded curtly. "Atlas developed the cross-continental transmit system to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another. It was their gift to the world after the Great War."

"Oooh, look at me, my name is Weiss, I know facts, I'm rich!" Ruby gibed

"Don't be a pest. Besides, the only reason we're here is because you like the tower so much. We could've just as easily made a call from the library"

 _Could've probably done this by now if that was the case…_ Lucian thought whilst walking alongside them. He was going to point that little fact out at first, but Ruby seemed pretty excited to visit the place. Lucian simply didn't have the heart to cut their little tour short.

"I know but it's so cool! Oh! I'm going to take a picture!" Ruby reached for her scroll, quickly fumbling in her excitement. It later clattered to the ground and stopped just shy of the foot of a familiar looking figure…

"Oh…" A girl lifted ruby's scroll from the ground and offered it to her. Ginger haired and green eyes. Almost like…

"You dropped this" She said cheerfully.

"Penny?" Ruby exclaimed.

The girl –Penny- seemed to panic as she realised who she was addressing. "Uhh…"

"Where have you been?! We haven't seen you since the night at the docks" Ruby started. Taking a few steps forwards. Penny shied away slightly as she approached.

 _A very good question…_ Lucian thought, memorising her details now that she was close. Last time he checked she wasn't a student of Beacon.

"S-sorry. I think you're confused.*hiccup*" With a jolt she passed the Scroll back to Ruby, beginning to look around nervously not long after "Uh, I've got to go" Penny immediately walked off in the opposite direction.

Weiss turned to give ruby a quizzical look "What was that about?"

"I don't know…But I'm going to find out." Ruby began to chase after penny "You go make your call, I'll meet up with you later!"

"Wait!" Weiss reached out a hand. Ruby carried on regardless. "Ugh…"

Lucian stole a few more glimpses the ginger as she left. So she was the one with ruby on that factory roof all those nights ago...And her name was Penny? He had forgotten to talk with Ozpin about what he found that night actually.

"Friend of yours?" He asked Weiss.

"It's…complicated."

"Right…" He scratched his head. "And I thought I kept weird company…"

Weiss ignored his comment and turned to the CCT. "Well come on, we have a job to do." She said, settling into a stroll.

"Of course your majesty." He said giving a small mocking bow and walking alongside her towards the tower.

"So you know who I am then?"

"Of course I do. Most of Remnant knows who you are." He said, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his hoodie "And I have to ask, what brings you to Vale? A girl like you probably had plenty of choices, wouldn't it have made more sense to stay and study at Atlas?"

"Indeed I did. But after some consideration I decided that a change of scenery was in order. Huntress's go all over the globe, it would make sense that my first steps take place somewhere unfamiliar"

"Bit of a distance for change of scenery…"

"Yes well, there were other reasons too. But its…well…"

"Complicated?"

"Something like that." She said quietly, then quickly resumed back to her prim proper mood. "In any case you should be honoured to have someone as esteemed as myself walking beacons halls."

"Yeah sorry, not really feeling it, I guess I'm a little dumbstruck or something."

She simply scoffed as the two of them made their way into the CCTs mains entrance. Lucian had been to the tower plenty of times but like most things this month it saw much more activity than he was used to. The Vytel festival brought people in from all around the world, it was only natural that those same people wanted to get in touch with family back home.

Despite the crowd they parted through the herd with surprising ease, though something felt a little off. People seemed polite compared to what he was used too at peak times. It didn't take long to find out why. A few students made gestures towards Weiss as they made their way through the building. And despite the looks she was getting Weiss was quite happily striding towards their destination with the grace of an exalted politician. Walking straight, with a kind of rehearsed authority in her step. It was like she owned the damn place.

 _Technically that might be true now that I think about it…_ Lucian mused internally.

"So Lucian, you seem pretty familiar with campus. How long have you been here?"

"Far too long." He said "To tell you the truth me training in Beacon is just a stepping stone so I can actually go out and explore places outside Vales walls."

"You haven't been outside of vale before?"

"I have, just not for some time now. Just like you huntsmen training doubles as a way to bust out of home. Otherwise…well I suppose it's…hm…"

"Complicated?"

He smiled "Yeah"

"I can sympathize with that. Enrolling in Beacon meant that I could finally get away from my households duties for once. Being an heiress has as many disadvantages as it does perks."

So the Schnee brat simply wanted to get outside of corporate life? Maybe there was some hope for this girl after all?

"That being said, Atlas is leagues above Vale in terms of unification, security and technology. It's a miracle that Vale's not prone to more attacks with its minimal defensive measures" She began "If it were up to me I'd let Atlas specialists take over Vale's organisational structure instead of using the city's current scheme. I mean, a committee system? How old fashioned is that?"

And just like that she blew it…

"And by assumption I guess you think this CCT building is an outdated bit of architecture" He said

"Quite right. Though this place does have a bit more charm I suppose…"

 _Oh please, Vale's got more soul than Atlas could ever dream of…_ Not that he'd been there, but everyone he met from Atlas was always so ridged and endured her air of pomp, not that he cared for it. Lucian wasn't the type to judge people hastily but that Schnee dust company logo had been the ire for many a person, Lucian had more right to hate it than most others. Though he wouldn't let it colour his impression of Weiss. First impressions though?

Not too great…

Eventually the two of them made their way up to the buildings central elevator. Weiss stopped and turned to face Lucian. "I'm going to see if I can get a direct line into the SDC headquarters. I should be able to get some information, but people who aren't affiliated with Altas shouldn't really be…"

"Yeah yeah I get it." He waved a hand "its fine. I have my own methods for acquiring information anyway. I'll be on the lower level if you need me, think I'm going to try talking to some staff."

"Later then" She nodded, stepping into the shaft. The doors closing behind her.

Lucian turned back onto the complex, watching people drift in and out of its various doorways and corridors. If he was lucky at least one of those people might actually know a thing or two about what's going on in the city. Though experience was telling him that getting information on Torchwick would be like finding a diamond in a bunch of broken glass...

Giving a sigh and taking a step he dove into the masses.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Just a heads up, I'm splitting this chapter into two parts. The original document was pretty lengthy so I decided to cut it in half instead. Don't fret though, I'll upload the 2**_ _ **nd**_ _ **part in a few days.**_

 _ **Side note, Rwby season 4 amirite? All aboard the hype train. Destination awesome central station. Arrival time estimated at approximately 22nd of October Etc…**_

 _ **Side side note: Couldn't help but notice a recent Rwby chibi episode...The one involving the floor is lava…**_

 _ **Now this could be a coincidence, but what I actually see is A BLATANT ACT OF PLAGIARISM! *Finds pitchfork, lights torch***_


	12. Chapter 11 part 2

**Chapter 11 Part 2**

* * *

Eir managed to track Bricks and his goons to one of the many derelict factories in Vale's industrial district. Luckily her hunch was right and she managed shave off a few minutes before his crew actually got settled. In the meantime she took it upon herself to find a decent vantage point within the building. Of course, finding a decent vantage point usually meant going place's you simply didn't want to go. The ventilation system of an old derelict factory line for instance.

"This better be worth it..." She muttered softly, her voice echoing slightly in what was basically a glorified aluminium tube.

Eir stifled a sneeze as she kicked up some dust. These vents probably hadn't been cleaned in years and the only sign of life to be found was a thin layer of mould in some of its corners, good for her in terms of snooping, not so good in terms hygiene. After shuffling around a bit and thanking her lucky stars that she didn't have any dust allergies Eir eventually found a shaft opening, one that looked like it could give a good angle onto the warehouse floor. She continued crawling up to it, timidly brushing aside a dead rat away from the opening. One that probably died of starvation in the attempt of finding food in new territories.

 _There's probably some irony in that…_ she thought as she got settled.

Say what you wanted about crawling about in vents but it worked. Well, most of the time it works anyway. Her knees were sore and her elbows felt like worn ball bearings but you couldn't ask for a better view. Eir looked down from her vantage point to find what would hopefully be the site of Brick's latest arms deal. It appeared that she was on the outskirts of the factories walls, almost touching the ceiling. Eir felt a small wave a vertigo wash over her as she noted just how high up she was, there was only a thin sheet of metal holding her weight really. Once again that old cliché of using the vents to get around only brought a new set of stories to mind, namely the ones on why the trick didn't always work. Death by falling usually being one of them.

The interior of the room appeared to be an old loading bay of sorts, but the factory itself was massive. Looking like it had once served as some kind of fabricating facility. Judging by the scratch marks on the concrete floor the place probably held some kind of machinery at some point. But now only a few littered crates and boxes remained. The undisturbed dust on those boxes made the buildings abandonment even more apparent, and the approaching night only attested to the place's creep factor. If Eir wasn't a Faunas the lack of light would have made things more difficult and probably a little more nerve wrecking. After waiting a bit and pushing her anxiety aside she could finally hear the sounds of activity. From the back end of the building the sound of a steel door sliding open could be heard. The sounds of a sputtering engine followed suite not long after.

Headlights flooded the room as Brick's drove in further, his van eventually coming to a stop just shy of the room's center. She had to squint as her eyes tried to focused through the sudden light source, her hearing on the other hand alerted her to more activity directly opposite of the van.

Eir tilted her head and closed her eyes, trying to pinpoint the source of the sounds. She could faintly her footsteps coming from the edges of the room. When she opened them figures seemed to shift and slip out from the darkness. A varied mix of silhouettes but all of their features sharing a Faunas trait of some kind. She wasn't sure when they'd entered, or –more frighteningly- how long they could have been hiding in this place. Suddenly Eir was glad that she was careful when snooping into the building. Anyone less experienced would probably be caught or dead by now.

She counted five in total, one of which towered over his cohorts with his muscular arms crossed, almost expectant. Judging by the impression he gave the man was probably the leader. They walked up in a line, facing the van head on a couple meters away. As they stepped into the light of the vehicle Eir could now see them in greater detail. All of them wore Grim masks, all of them wore the White Fangs banner.

Bricks stepped out of the van, walking a few paces forward with his sawn off resting against his shoulder. He too stepped into the headlights, his shadow becoming a girthy ominous pillar spanning almost the length of the room. The contrast between light and shadow hid most of his features. All in all it was pretty menacing. Eir had seen his type of intimation before, it wasn't for show, Bricks was always ready to throw down and everybody on the street knew it. Eir could only imagine the feeling of dread the members the White Fang were probably getting right now. Even the big one.

"Are you the man they call Bricks?" The larger member said. His voice thick and bellowing. No hint of nervousness in his voice. Eir decided to call him the big boss man

She shuffled on her elbows slightly, edging closer to the vent. She was worried that listening in might a problem this high up. But thankfully between her enhanced hearing and the acoustics of the vent eavesdropping wasn't a problem.

"That would be me, yeah. I take it your representing a uhh…Mr smith?"

The White Fang leader nodded. "I believe we have some business to discuss"

"That we do. Well, provided I brought the right stuff, you lot wanted something in red right?" Bricks queried.

 _Didn't know the white fang were the kind to colour code things…_

The larger man shifted and pulled something from under his clothing. Eir wasn't in a position to see what it was.

"Hm, I see you already have something." Bricks seemed to relax slightly upon seeing whatever it was.

 _Ah, a security measure, that makes more sense._

The big boss man put the item back into his clothing

 _I'll have to find out what that thing is later…_ She thought. Making a mental note.

"I trust everything is in order?" The White Fang leader said clearly, his tone expectant and demanding. No, this man had no reason to fear Bricks, strength seemed to show in every aspect of his being.

Bricks nodded. "One moment gents" He said as he moved back to his van.

His partners in crime filed out the vehicle and began to help unload various containers. Though they didn't turn the engine off, you could never be too ready for a quick escape. So he was dealing with the White Fang these days? Guess it made sense. Guys like those would always keep arms dealers handy.

Bricks and his lackeys seemed to finish up their prep work and began pushing two carts over. An assortment of crates by the looks of things. Bricks himself pushed one that looked expensive, Atlas branded and with a number of security clearance numbers on the back. It was rare that he did any sort of manual labour, perhaps the crate was worth more than she thought?

The White Fang remained where they stood. Silently primed for anything. Their leader continued to watch on with crossed arms. Bricks stopped before them, then gave his companions a nod. Shortly after they began to get the crates open.

"Gentlemen" Bricks said jovially whilst slapping his palms together "May I present to you fresh from althesian military factory line…"

The addict popped open the first crate with a crowbar. He then stepped back as two White Fang members came over to inspect it.

"Five sets of series three rifles, A60 models. Accompanied with all their relevant gadgets, gizmos and what not."

The addict passed the crowbar over to Bricks.

"And last but not least…" With a crack of snapping wood he burst the crates top off with startling ease, revealing its contents.

Shells…heavy duty by the looks of things… Eir had smuggled ammunition before but this stuff looked completely new.

"A full case of 30mm rounds for an Atlesian Paladin 290"

The larger man nodded as he personally inspected the goods. "This is good." He simply said.

"Hard to come by those, had to call in a favour or two to get that imported, what with the thing not even in use yet." Bricks said as he stood patiently next to the crate. He definitely wasn't treating this dude the same why as he treated his other customers. Eir wondered just how much money was riding on this trade of his.

A few minutes past as the two parties went about their dealings. One of the White Fang members marched up to the boss man, whispering something and giving a nod.

"Everything seems to be in order." The larger man announced.

"Got some extra stuff in the back in if you're interested." Bricks said, gesturing to his van.

The man pondered for a moment before eventually speaking. "Very well. What else do you have?"

With a motion Bricks got the chain smoker girl to roll up another selection of hardware. This one looked more like a buffet of random weaponry compared to what was previously offered. Guns, grenades, satchel charges, you name it. Bricks fumbled around in one of the boxes for a moment. Amusingly he picked out the rocket launcher that Eir had sold him a little over an hour ago.

"I figured guys like you could use some additional firepower," Bricks started, handing the rocket launcher to the White Fang leader. The man took it and looked it over "I could cut the price down to a grand 'n' half for that"

 _That's three times as much as I sold it for you ass!_

"Now it's a pre-war model, but it's still functional and more importantly; still destructive." Bricks continued to sell the item. Unknown to him was Eir slightly fuming in the ventilation shafts just above them. "Personally I prefer 'em over Atlesian arms. All the fancy digital crap they put on weapons nowadays always breaks in the long run. Better to have something mechanical and heartless. As any good bit of steel should be, eh?"

The big boss man seemed to regard it for a time, shooting a glance at one of the nearby members of the White Fang, the one who had being running inventory. The member gave a subtle nod to his superior.

Eir couldn't tell through the mask, but the big boss man didn't seemed too thrilled.

"Uh, that's not to say that your choice of weapons is defective or anything…Just personal opinion." Bricks started

"This was missing from our supply cache earlier today…" He said, taking a few slow but authroitve steps towards Bricks. "Have you been stealing weapons from us?"

He came to a stop just shy of brick's gut, invading his space. An act that would have been punished immediately if the White Fang leader had been anything other than a high paying client.

"Course not, I bought this recently."

"From who?"

"Never get the name, we never do. Your 'mister smith' can attest to that." He pointed out "All we do is buy and sell."

"But you do have eyes, and you do see things. What did this person look like?"

"Shit I dunno man, just another runt in the back streets. A panda Faunus I guess. Could be one of your lot now that I think about it."

"Watch what you say human." He warned "The White Fang are not a bunch of petty thieves"

Bricks was playing one of the first tricks of deception. Trying to shift blame onto their own side… it would work too. Defecting White Fang members selling equipment could easily be the reason for things like this. Though he was still taking a risk for protecting Eir's anonymity.

 _Thanks big man._

Maybe there was some honour amongst thieves after all? Well, sometimes at least. Eir felt a bit guilty for tailing him here now.

"You would do well to be more attentive in the future. My representee dislikes information that slips the net. And what he doesn't like, I don't like? Understand?"

"You can rely on my services." Bricks said. Voice low yet cautionary.

"I should hope so…"

Bricks gave nothing but a returning glare. He was about the only person she could think of who could've of faced down such a guy. Eventually the tension dissipated slightly and the big boss man stepped back towards the collection of weaponry

"You will get your money for originally stated munitions. As for this…" He passed the rocket launcher onto one of his lackeys "It will be reclaimed by the White fang. We thank you for returning our properties."

"It's uh…My pleasure…" He grumbled

A White Fang member marched up to bricks. "We'll be needing these" He said while handing over a scrap of paper. Their next purchase at a guess. He snatched it from the guy and sneered at him, showing no hint of respect for anyone but their leader. His aggression quickly vanished as Bricks did double take of the note.

He immediately turned to face the big boss man who was in the process of organising the movement of goods. "Hey now, look, no offense or anything, but this is some serious kit. Now I'm resourceful, don't get me wrong, but this…"

"I'm sure you can call in more 'favours'" He said, his back turned on bricks "Or are we going to have a problem?"

The tension refilled the room. A few of the idly standing members now looked primed for anything, more than a few rested hands on weapons. Suddenly Eir realised there were far more on the factory floor than she could previously see.

Bricks didn't bother looking around, almost as if he could feel the danger. "No. There's no problem." He said quietly.

"Then I think we're done here." The big boss man said.

With a nod all the members in the room dispersed almost as quickly as they had arrived. Though the ones handling the goods were the last ones out. Brick's crew left with the same haste. Eir could hear a few curses as they left in that van of theirs. Once again silence claimed the factory floor.

She slumped backwards from the vent. Deep in thought. Bricks dealing with the White Fang was one thing, but the White Fang to actually have a clear presence in vale now was something else entirely. More importantly, what did they plan to do with all that gear?

Whatever it was Eir wasn't about to get involved, she would go where the money went, not where the blood would be spilled. She knew all too well just how violent the White fang could get with those sorts of munitions. And despite her history of causing trouble in the city Eir still didn't want to imagine the amount of damage it was going to cause. Times like these were when you kept your head down and your fingers safely away from any pies, no matter how delicious those pies may be.

That being said…

Something tugged at the back of her mind. A mix of unanswered questions and loose ends that couldn't help but niggle at her curiosity. The White Fang had some pretty serious history in Vale. They've attacked the city before, that was a given. But all those attacks took place outside its walls, anything within the city had either been low scale one off acts of terrorism or the occasional localized riot. But if they already had this new equipment inside of Vale…Well, they weren't settling for a little riot downtown anymore. That aside, If more hardware was being traded in the underground then that meant more money was being circulated too…

She gave a quiet yawn.

But those things tugging at her brain could wait. Today had been a busy one, and she was looking forward to its end. She would have to continue hiding in the factory for at least an hour until she knew everyone was gone, then she would begin her trek back to Beacon. Eir tried to make herself comfortable as she could in the vent. Now seemed like the perfect time for a nap…

»»» § »»»

Well that, Lucian concluded, was a complete waste of time…

The towers staff only gave vague info about things Lucian already knew. Most transfer students were too fresh to know anything within the city and the fully trained huntsmen that passed through here were either too busy to care or just too busy. Aside from himself and his companions no one here seemed to have even an inkling of what was going on.

He slouched on one of the railings that bordered the elevator, debating what to do as he waited for Weiss to finish her call. That's when he felt a buzzing in his pocket.

Taking out his scroll he was immediately greeted by the sound of gunfire and yelling.

"Everyone, if you can hear me we need backup-"Blake's voice, though she was immediately cut off by Wukong's yelling.

" _They got a robot, and it's big, really big."_ Explosions could be heard in the background, along with the metallic stomping of whatever was chasing them _"That Torchwick's guys in it! But not like…it didn't eat him- He's like controlling it or something."_

"Oh for god's sake…" Lucian groaned

How is it that Sun always seemed to find this kind of crap?

" _Hurry!"_ The sounds of mechanized stomping sounded like they were getting closer.

He looked to his left and noticed Weiss popping out of the elevator, she too was watching the feed on her scroll. They looked at each other and shared a look of annoyed disbelief.

Lucian pointed to the feed on his scroll. "So uh…?"

She huffed then went into a run. Lucian quickly followed suit.

»»» § »»»

Well today, Eir happily concluded while recounting the cash, had been a good use of her time.

Her efforts to find a bigger haul only lead her to more questions but at least she made some decent money, she would send that back home tomorrow. She quietly yawned as she stepped though Beacons dimly lit dormitory corridor. Despite her best efforts she found no sleep in that factory vent, and now that she was back at Beacon it felt like a good time to end the day with a proper sleep.

A buzzing in her pocket snapped her out of her little lull.

She snapped it open. Eir was quick to turn down the volume on her Scroll as sounds of crashing metal flooded the dorms corridor. With tired and confused eyes she watched Sun yell into the scroll as he ran from…whatever he was running from…

" _That Torchwick's guys in it! But not like…it didn't eat him- He's like controlling it or some_ -"

Eir ended the call.

"Nope." She found herself saying.

She had only just gotten back to beacon. Going back into town now would be a massive pain in the ass. With a wave of her scroll she unlocked the door to her room. Whatever mess he had gotten himself into he could get himself out of it. She gave another yawn into the quiet of night. It was getting pretty late.

Her eyes instantly found her bed, its plush quilts looking so comfy, so inviting…

Without thinking Eir's legs steered her over towards the bed, eventually giving out as she plonked herself slap bang into the middle of the mattress.

 _Oh sweet bed wrap me in your sheets and never let me go…_ Eir snuggled further into the folds of her bedding. She was so comfy, did Lucian have any idea at what he was missing?

The tension of the day quickly started to bleed away from her, and without even another thought to her teammates.

Eir immediately went to sleep.

»»» § »»»

"There! Upper left!" Weiss pointed at the one of the highways as she and Lucian hopped from one glyph to the other. From a distance he could just make out the silhouette of a robot. Its presence heralded by the sounds of smashing steel and beeping cars, one or two of which were tossed into the air with astonishing ease. Amongst the chaos the sound of heavy metal pounding and breaking onto roadway was getting closer, looking further that mechanical silhouette appeared to be running down that highway like nobody's business. Road safety be damned. Wasn't that the new Paladin? Fucking hell those weren't even deployed yet, how did Sun manage to find one, let alone get in a fight with it?

Those sounds of carnage took on a new severity as they drew closer. The pair crested the top of one of the highways glass borders and stopped to get a better look at the situation. The big robot was indeed the new Paladin, the thing was quite happily charging towards Sun and Blake who had to hop cars just to avoid its attacks. Neptune and Yang seemed to be flanking the contraption not far behind.

"We need to get down there" Weiss said.

They'd need to be quick too. Lucian stepped closer to the edge. Weiss had shown her prowess at glyphs during the way here but there was a faster option.

"Have you ever teleported before?" Lucian asked.

"Of course I have, you're talking to the heiress of-"

"Great" He placed a hand on her shoulder before she could finish.

He surged his dust, his veins ignited with a dim white glow. Lucian then began the process of teleporting them to each highway leading up to their destination. Lucian wasn't able to teleport long distances. But short hops like these would do.

After a few choice teleports Lucian placed them onto a highway just above the target location.

"Right. Now we just have to…" His sentenced drifted off as a familiar pair flew off into the distance. Somehow Wukong and Neptune managed to topple themselves off the highway

"Seriously guys…" He sighed, then looked at Weiss. "You got this?"

"Of course."

He quickly left Weiss to her own devices. Lucian ran then jumped over the edge of the highway, keeping his eye on the descending pair. Feeling the sudden rush of air and the pull of gravity in his stomach.

 _How do I get myself into these situations…?_

He set his veins alight once more. A flash, and a new perspective later he grabbed them both mid-flight.

"Fancy seeing you idiots" He said to them.

The two gave him a dumb look.

Lucian warped back down to ground level, those sounds of chaos now echoing above them and growing distant. The vertigo of the descent suddenly vanishing as their feet touched the ground.

Neptune was quick to pounce on Lucian. "Hey! We had that covered"

"Course you did." Lucian scoffed

"Lucian you idiot now how are we gonna help them?" Sun began

"Oh I'm sorry, maybe I should've let you fall to your deaths instead?"

Neptune ignored his comment and looked back up to the highway "Ugh, now how we meant to get back up?"

"Is there any point now? Can we even catch up with something that has legs as big as freight trains?" Lucian said. The sounds from earlier were pretty faint now.

"I mean, I suppose we should at least try?" Neptune said

"I guess. But where never gonna get there in time…" Lucian replied.

"Hey uh…Anyone else hungry?" Wukong interrupted

Neptune and Lucian shared a frown. They both turned to face what Sun had discovered. In the dim light at the bottom of the highway was a warm glow of a Wok. Steam coming from its sides and the faint clinking of cooking utensils, It was rather inviting all things considered.

"Um…" Lucian scratched his head.

"Actually…" Neptune also trailed off.

Slowly but surely the three of them started taking some timid steps towards the Wok. Their concerns turning away from the girls safety and towards the contents of their stomachs.

"They've probably got this covered…" Sun began

"Probably..." Lucian replied

"I mean, they can definitely handle themselves." He went on.

"Definitely…"

 _ **One hour, and twelve orders of chicken stir fry later…**_

"All I'm saying is that we could have handled that ourselves. I had a landing planned out and everything" Neptune continued as they crept through beacons dorms area and towards their room.

"Right…" Lucian shook his head.

"And for the record it was going to be awesome. I'm talking like Spruce Willis levels of awesome."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night buddy"

"Just because you can't."

"Hey, I stopped you making an ass of yourself while girls where watching. _And_ saving your life, you should be thanking me" Lucian argued "I mean seriously, how many times have I pulled your ass out the fire now…?"

"Ssshh" Sun interrupted, pressing his finger to his lips as he tipped toed into their room.

They crept in further. It soon became clear why Wukong insisted on silence. The boys stepped closer towards Eir's bed, eventually leaning over her snoozing form.

"Awww...she's kinda cute" Neptune quietly commented.

They watched Eir fidget in her sleep, her arms and legs occasionally twitching as she silently snored away.

"I bet she's chasing sheep"

"Racist." Wukong whispered.

"But what if it's true?" He replied.

"Then we have an absolute weirdo for a teammate"

"We already knew that" Lucian added.

They hushed as Eir quietly moaned and rolled over. Mumbling something about mutton, or maybe that was just his imagination.

"Hey uhh…she probably got our call right?" Wukong said.

"Probably." Lucian shrugged.

"You think she was actually busy? Or just ignoring us?"

They took another look at Eir. She looked happy, _too_ happy. And after what they had just gone through…Well, that just didn't feel right.

"Sooo." Wukong began "Who wants to draw on her face?"

He looked to the pair, a smile on their lips and pens already in hand. Their combined gaze descended down onto Eir's dozing form, looking so innocent, so unaware…

Oh she was gonna to get it.

* * *

 _ **A/N**_

 _ **Holy shit you guys have no idea how much I wanted to get this chapter out the way.**_

 _ **I feel like a lot of my chapters have been a bit sub-par. I think this is mainly because I needed to establish stuff first and get the background foundations settled. In a metaphorical sense I've needed to finish the sponge before I can put the icing on this cake, and to continue that metaphor I still have a little more of that sponge left to bake. But now that I've gotten through the bulk of it I can finally move onto more interesting scenes that I've wanted to do. That should hopefully mean more enjoyable writing and –hopefully- reading.**_

 _ **You'll notice in this chapter I didn't really do much with the episode it was based on. This is simply because we already know what happens and didn't want to bore anyone by rehashing things we've already seen. I could have done a perspective of Wukong or someone and give it a greater internal monologue, but –again- we already know how the main song and dance goes. This was why there was more emphasis on what Eir was up too in contrast to the others. But on that topic you will see more action from the cannon cast in the future. So with that in mind feel free to put ideas for character shenanigans in the comments section.**_


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12:**

 **Priorities**

"How do I get myself into these situations" Eir muttered, placing another overdue report among the countless others she had scattered all over her bed. Giving a quick sigh she buried her head in her hands and weighed up her options. Eir had overslept. It was eleven o'clock, going on twelve. And while she had planned to finish all her assignments in a mad morning rush her desire to sleep had apparently outweighed her desire to study.

 _Best laid plans and all that…_

At least it was a weekend. Well, a weekend she wouldn't be able to spend until this work was finished…

She shook herself from her lull and got working on a plan B. Perhaps she could go get help? Better yet, blackmail someone? Maybe not her team though, apparently they had managed to rope themselves into a fight last night, probably best to leave them be for today. Eir recalled the news she caught in the earlier part of the morning. Seriously, she knew these guys were gonna be rowdy, just not the 'let's go play on the highway and do fisticuffs with giant robots' type of rowdy.

From what she could gather those three had gone back into Vale this morning to do some shopping or something. She couldn't see why they even wanted to go back into town after last night's kerfuffle. Though if she was honest a morning spent in town sounded better than a morning stuck indoors desperately scribbling away at overdue reports. She bit her lip at that thought. There wasn't much time left before they would just fail her assignment outright…

Eir moved from her bed and over to the only desk that wasn't destroyed during the floor is lava game, hastily looking through the report papers. Not hers, but Lucians. There was only one real way that she was getting that report submitted now…

She looked around out of habit, he was nowhere to be seen. Though his hoodie was draped over one of the corners of the couch. At first she figured that he was out with Sun and Neptune. But after thinking about it they probably left Lucian behind due to his sleepy demeanour in the mornings.

With deft hands she collected the sheets of paper and placed them underneath her jacket, making sure to tuck some of the sheet in the waist lining of her leggings and being careful not to crumble the paper. Last time she did this was a year back when she had to steal some bank documents. The goal was to drop them off later with them looking untouched.

 _Hm, wasn't that another failed job? Ah, whatever…_

She didn't know how good Lucian's grades were but she was definitely sure he was doing better than Eir in studies. Besides, this technically classifies as teamwork in a way. Right. She thought. That was his papers, now what else could she take from him while he's gone?

Her eyes were immediately drawn back to his blue hoodie. She was fairly sure that thing had a packet of mints inside with her name on it.

Eir took a closer look at it now that he had the chance. It wasn't the run of the mill ones like she had seen on the street, this one seemed to have some sort of designer fashion in mind with its white trimmings around and inside the hood, and sharper features through some of the tailoring. Though Lucian didn't seem like the kind of guy to care about his appearance. Maybe it was a present?

He always seemed to have unzipped with the sleeves pushed up to his forearms, maybe the thing was warmer than it looked or something? Curious, Eir pulled it on. She thought her sports jacket was a bit big but Lucian's hoodie seemed to completely drape over her. Eir nestled further into the thing, flipping up the hood. At least if felt comfortable…

And it was heavy…

Eir frowned and began rifling around inside of the clothing. Her hands quickly found the source of the weight. A red cylindrical metal container, tipped at the end with a series of thin rectangular fins near the bottom. An explosive of sorts. Her hands rooted around further. There was more of them, three in total, each one inside a special pocket within the lining of the clothing. Eir took a closer gander at the explosive in her hand.

' _HM Vulcan'_ it read _'- STANDARED INCIDRAIRY / – WARNING – If device begins to smoke, vacate area immediately. Seek shelter and cover head.'_

She continued to thumb over some of the small print.

' _Proudly designed and manufactured by the Tinkers Arms & Emporium. Guaranteed to hit hard or your money back! –_ _Actual cash returns may vary_ _-'_

"What the actual fuck?" She spoke outload

"Oi"

Eir turned to find Lucian standing in the doorway of their dorms bathroom. Fully clothed but with a towel over his neck and shoulders after apparently washing his hair. Though it was still ruffled as the day she first met him, suppose it made sense that a guy like him would have permanent bed head. A thought occurred. Eir would have heard the shower. Yeah, she slept in for a bit, but not _that_ long. Just how long was waiting in there after he was done? Like six am?"

"Where did you come from?" She started "And why the hell do you have-"

Eir was interrupted by the sound of their dorm room main door slamming open.

"Howdy neighbours!" Ruby greeted cheerfully, a colour scheme of yellow and white behind her. "We were wondering if you guys wanted to study together."

"To be more accurate Ruby needs help." Weiss pointed out, popping her head inside and waving a finger

"Give me that!" Lucian pulled the hoodie of off Eir with tug, snatching the explosive back and stuffing it back into one of the hidden pockets.

"Uh, did we interrupt something?" Ruby said, looking a little puzzled.

"No, but for the love of god if you could take this idiot of my hands I'd be grateful" He grumbled, discarding the towel.

"Sorry, but this 'idiot' has things to do, places to see…"

"Reports to fail?" Lucian finished for her

"I'll get them done" Eir shot, swatting at Lucian and missing "Eventually…"

"Can't I persuade you with some candy?" Ruby said, wiggling a bag of gummy bears in front of her.

"I'm not six years old, I'm not that easily swayed" Eir replied, crossing her arms.

Though that was the _good_ bag of gummy bears she was brandishing…No, her sweet tooth wouldn't weaken her resolve.

"Come on, pretty please?" Ruby pressed

"I've got better things to do with my time. Eating and sleeping for example."

"Aren't you already on a disciplinary for missing all those other assignments?" Lucian piped up whilst putting his hoodie back on. "What if you fail another one?"

 _Damn he's got a point there…_

She scratched her head. "Well…I suppose I could lend you my vast knowledge of…uh…"

"Aura manipulation theory"

"Yeah that."

Ruby then turned to the insomniac. "Lucian? How about you?"

"Count me out, if I read up on anymore theorem's I'll go insane. Plus I've already done most of it" he said while making his way out of the room, lazily waving a goodbye as he left "I'm gonna find somewhere to chill. You lot have fun"

"Can we at least get your notes?" Ruby asked

"I think Eir's already got them." Lucian responded as he continued down the hall.

Ah, so he noticed?

She took his notes out from underneath her jacket, giving a slight grin. "Right then…" Eir began, waving Lucian's work in front of them "who wants to finish this report?"

"Reports" Weiss corrected

"Say what?"

"Oobleck gave us two reports. Aura manipulation theory has a case study _and a_ research essay." She elaborated

 _T-there's…TWO…reports…?_

Eir stepped back, as if gut punched by Weiss's words. Lucian's notes flopped downwards in Eir's hands, matching her sudden change of mood.

 _I'm so fucked!_ Eir shouted internally

She immediately walked out of the dorm. "So uh, yeah! Study session, sounds great. Library is this way right?"

"Other way" Weiss corrected once more

»»» »»»

Despite the second wave of panic Eir felt today the instant she sat down and actually faced those textbooks that feeling of urgency just kinda…went. Even as they all got settled not much studying was actually happening, things felt more like a chat with a bunch of textbooks littered about the place than a group study session. Eir wasn't alone in putting off her assignments though. As it turns out the only one who really wanted to study were Ruby and Weiss. Yang and Eir on the other hand just did their best to elevate some boredom.

"All right" Yang started "You get invisibility. But only while playing a saxophone."

"What the hell? That's pointless then. How am I meant to sneak into the male changing rooms while blowing on that thing? Besides I don't even know how to play a saxophone!" Eir said.

"Yeah but think about it, even if your playing is terrible no one else would know it was you"

"Sssh," Weiss interrupted for what seemed to be the thousandth time "this is a library. People are actually trying to study here?"

"Aren't we collaborating or something? Surely that means we can talk right?" Eir argued.

"Yeah." Yang agreed "Besides, it's rare that we actually use the library for studying anyway."

Weiss simply shook her head and dove back into her text books again. Eir and Yang immediately went back to chatting.

"Hey did you guys hear about the man who was arrested for masturbating in a library?" Eir started. Supressing a smile.

"Uh, no?"

"They say he came quietly" she said with a sly grin.

Yang was giggling quite contently to herself, Ruby on the other hand, looked a little confused.

"I don't get it" she innocently said.

"Ugh, so repugnant" Weiss grumbled. Eyes still focused on the work in front of her.

"Ah, you're no fun." Yang griped. "Hey can I see your answer for question five?"

"Why don't you just take the assignment instead of asking me what every answer is?" The brat moaned

"Don't mind if I do." Yang said, immediately seizing the collection of papers from under Weiss's notebook.

"No-I didn't mean. Ugh…"

The blonde scanned the final grading on the front of the sheet as Weiss continued to scribble at the sheets in front of her. "Hmph, why do you always get A's on everything?"

"Because only A's are acceptable." Weiss curtly stated.

"Is that why you have small boobs?" Eir jumped in.

This time both Yang and Ruby snickered at that one.

Weiss simply sniffed at her comment and looked back down to her work.

Contented, Yang picked a gummy bear out of the open packet on the desk, twiddling it between her fingers before popping it in her mouth. "Hey Ruby," Yang began, a twinkle in her eye. "What do you call a bear who's lost all its teeth?"

"A gummy bear." Eir finished for her.

"I see you enjoy my sister's un-bear-able puns" Ruby said with a roll of her eyes.

"Ruby that was awful." The elder sister replied, rolling another gummy bear in between her fingers.

"I'm sorry. I'll get better, just bear with me."

"Hmm. Redeemed" Yang threw the candy to Ruby who proceeded to catch it in her mouth like a puppy snatching a treat from the air.

Weiss huffed from the other side of the table, appearing to try her best to stay somewhat concentrated on her work "You guys are insufferable sometimes…Hey, could you pass me one of those?" she asked

"Sure. How about a straw-beary one?" Yang said, smiling to herself.

"Okay please stop."

"Why? Are you em-bear-est with us?" Yang continued.

"Yeah, you'll just have to grin and bear it I'm afraid." Eir joined in.

Yang gave the wolf faunas a challenging look. "You think you can keep pace with me? I really doubt your kola-fied"

"Oh I'm paw-istive. I'm bearly holding back you know." Eir retorted. Giving a sly grin.

"Ugh! Why are you doing this now of all times?" Weiss continue to moan.

"Just beclaws." Yang simply said

"I don't have time for your stupid little jokes." The Heiress attempted to get back to her text books, though it was a futile effort.

"What are you talking about, these are great. Everyone should bear witness to my brilliant puns" She continued

"There annoying!"

"Others would say they claw-some" Eir added "I mean come on, these are paws-ibly the best puns I've heard of all day."

"Now you're just trying to irritate me!" Weiss snapped.

"Hey I'm no care bear, you should probably get used to it."

The Schnee brat ground her teeth in frustration. A white knuckle grip on her pencil.

"Hm. This is starting to turn into a grizzly situation" Yang noted

"Seriously stop it!" Weiss barked

"Uh oh. I think she's going to go bear-zerk" Ruby joined in.

"Ugh, it's like it's contagious!"

"Your right, this is turning into a panda-emic!" Eir said.

With a snap Weiss's pencil broke in her hand. Her once pale complexion now flushing red with anger

"Hmm she's getting mad, maybe we should stop?" Yang observed

"Maybe… at this rate she might kill us with her bear hands!" Eir continued.

"Agh!" Weiss finally broke. Standing up and quickly collected her books she stormed off. Absolutely fuming. She passed Blake on who attempted to greet her as she walked, though Weiss didn't seem to notice her in red mist. The raven haired girl took note of her partner's expression, then looked to the table her teammate fled from.

"Hey there Blake. Meow you doing?" Yang greeted as the Faunus girl approached.

"Um, fine. What's up with Weiss?"

"Ah you know, playing the part of the ice queen. But its way better now that you're here." Yang said.

"Yeah. In fact we've been waiting for a mewnment like this." Eir chimed in.

"Blatant racism aside, what are you doing?"

"Studying apparently…" Eir said, giving her work an uninterested glance "But we found a better ways of passing the time. Actually we got some claw-some puns for you."

"I don't like cat puns. They freak meowt." Blake said, a slight grin forming on her lips.

"That's un-fur-tunate." Yang said

"Nah she's lion." Eir began

"Fur real?"

"Yeah, she finds them hiss-terical" She continued.

"Well as fun as this is, I need to go." Blake said, checking the time on her scroll.

"Can't we purr-suade you to join us?" Yang insisted whilst chomping off the head of another gummy bear.

"No. Hey, can I get one of those mew?- I mean- too…crap…" Blake stammered, gesturing to the packet of gummy bears.

"Sure, cat-ch."

Blake snatched it from the air, then turned to continue on her way.

"You have cat to be kitten me right now." Yang began

"Her expression was purr-iceless." Eir said

They turned to each other, in recognition of their brilliance.

"Besties?" Yang said, smiling ever contented with her pinky finger raised

"Besties." Eir confirmed, locking fingers.

»»» § »»»

"That insufferable little…"

Weiss continued to mumble about delinquents and incompetent teammates even after she had finished her studying. Yet despite being content with finishing her work she still couldn't shake of her feeling of frustration. It was times like these where only one thing could quell her mood.

She strode off in the direction of Beacons music room. Well, apparently it was this direction anyway, this would mark her first visit to it. Originally when moving into beacon her plan was to figure out where everything was, a music room being a priority on that list. Though after arriving, forming teams and…well, everything, it had just escaped her mind for a time. Thinking back none of what she had planned had actually made the light of day during her first days at Beacon. And to say that any of it was within her expectations would just be a lie at this point. Sure, she had researched the academy, listened to graduated students and even read the campus handbook. And yet none of that had prepared for the one thing that should have been so obvious in a place of learning. Its students.

Despite her growing affection for her team, Ruby, Yang and even Blake wouldn't have exactly been her first choice of teammates if things were up to her. Beacons team program was totally different from Atlas, thinking about it if her father got what he wanted she may have even had her own choice of teammates if that were the case. But that was beside the point. Her team was one thing, but people like Sun and that blasted Eir were a constant source of irritation. Seriously that girl was just plain annoying at the best of times.

Weiss tried to bleed her annoyance with a sigh. Blake would have understood her frustration during study. Her quiet and calm demeanour was about the only thing that reminded her that the rest of her team wasn't always such an…energetic bunch. Though Weiss didn't even have luxury of her presence given that she said she had to step out of beacon today. Though Weiss was fairly sure Blake was on a date with that ruffian Wukong. Honestly team LENS was despicable, well, minus Neptune of course…

Weiss continued to walk down the corridor, silently debating whether or not day could get anymore tedious.

That's when she ran into two sets of blonde hair.

"Oh, hey Weiss we were looking for you." Jaune said, walking side by side with Yang.

She debated whether to address them or immediately turn around and pretend she didn't notice their presence. Though she supposed just ignoring them would be unbecoming of an heiress, as were so many things.

"Weren't you going to study someplace, err, quieter?" Yang said

"I just finished up actually. Did you need something?"

Yang quickly gave Jaune a nudge with her elbow, snapping him alert.

"Oh right, hey uh, I was wondering…" He began

"If you could copy my notes for the assignment?" She finished for him

"Uh…yeah….you know, if you don't mind…"

"Actually Weiss could I get in on that? I got kinda of side tracked during study, heh…" Yang awkwardly scratched her head.

"Didn't you already take some of my notes?"

"Some of them, yeah. But…you know, I mean if you're offering again…"

"Your both hopeless" She sighed, offering her notebook to them both.

The two immediately grabbed it with the grace of two bears fighting over a fish.

 _I'm surrounded by morons…_ Weiss thought, rolling her eyes. Times like these reminded her on why Atlas may have just been the simpler choice. Yes, things may have been more regimented over there but at least she wouldn't have to deal with…well this.

"It's mine!" Jaune growled between gritted teeth, trying with all his strength to pull the note book away from Yang's herculean grip

"Oh yeah? Come and get it then!" She shot. Giving him a challenging look.

Though Weiss had to supress a smile at their antics. Because at the end of the day, despite everything that happens at beacon, despite her odd choice of friends and their daily shenanigans…

She wouldn't have had things here any other way.

The two eventually concluded their little tug of war, with Yang naturally being the victor. She turned to Weiss, triumphant and beaming. "So where are you off too anyway?"

"I was going to practice singing if you must know" she said, though somehow speaking those words instantly made her regret saying them.

"Oohh! Can we come with? Promise to be quiet" Janue piped up

"Don't you two need to study?"

"We can do both"

Weiss gave a quiet sigh.

 _I'm not going to get any peace today am I?_

She looked to the pair. Things would be easier if they just left her to it…

"Pretty please…" They both pleaded in unison. Eyes as big as pringle tubes.

But who was she to say no to those faces?

"Fine" She said, turning on her the balls of her feet and walking back towards the music room "prepare to witness the voice of an angel"

"Aw yes!" the pair cheered, falling in behind her and talking amongst themselves. Unbeknownst to them was Weiss silently smiling as they walked. She couldn't see why her father was so hell bent on stopping her from going to Beacon, saying that it wasn't a 'proper' and 'sophisticated' academy. Beacon alone had so much more life to its walls than any of Atlas's academy's ever did, though she wouldn't admit that just yet…

As Weiss strode further down the corridor she could pick up the growing sounds of a soft melody, a piano judging by those pleasantly familiar tones.

"Looks like someone's beat you to it." Yang noted.

As they drew closer the music was easier to parse, easier to feel the emotion behind the playing. Only musicians who had passion could properly convey that sort of feeling, a passion that Weiss had adopted during her childhood back at White castle. Whoever was in there knew what they were doing

They stopped at the room's door. Larger than most of Beacons doors and being far more ornate with its wooden engravings. After a moment Weiss pressed a hand against its frame and gave a push, letting the music free from the confines of the room and out into open air. The three of them stepped in one by one, only to find a familiar white haired student playing the piano.

"Lucian?" Jaune said stepping forwards. "I didn't know you could play"

He paused his playing to inspect the rabble behind him. "Uh, yeah." He replied. Bringing his hands away from the keys.

Weiss scanned the room as she approached the piano, classic ebony and long bodied frame. It was almost slap bang in the middle of the space. Most the other instruments scattered along the outskirts of the room had a nice layer of dust on them. That piano however, appeared to be very well cared for despite its age. Looking further everything seemed relatively simple but well equipped. A hardwood floor, a small blackboard in one of the far corners, PA equipment in others. At the end portion of the room a set of ornate windows positioned high up near a skylight allowed sunlight to fill the space with a warm natural glow. Cascading beautifully off the pianos gloss.

 _So this is where he went off to…_

"And here's me thinking team LENS were an unrefined bunch." Weiss said walking deeper into the room.

"No, you'd still be right. Just that one of us can play an instrument too." Lucian responded. He shifted over the seat to face the newcomers. "So what you lot up to then?"

"Weiss was going to practice her singing and said we could come along." Yang said

"Not by choice…" Weiss muttered. Their new knowledge of singing practice was probably going to bite her again at some point "But this is perfect, you can help."

"Help?" He frowned

She came around the grand piano, placing herself next to its body. Standing up straight as she had been taught by so many of her instructors over the years.

"Yes, you can help me practice my vocal range. I need to warm up."

Yang and Jaune gathered closer, eager to finally see Weiss's ability in singing first hand. Though Lucian seemed more annoyed more than anything.

She looked to the snow top. "Could you start me off a G3 please?"

He sighed, but shifted to place a hand back onto the instrument. "All right…" He reluctantly pressed down on the ivory key, Weiss then began to match her tone to the piano.

Her voice filled the room quite nicely. Obviously the rooms architect had given proper thought to its acoustics, the space complimented her singing beautifully. Before Weiss could ask Lucian went up the vocal ranges one by one. It seemed that he did know his stuff. She glanced towards her small audience. Jaune was most glowing, totally enraptured by her voice. Yang was also amazed but not quite as star struck. She looked to her left to gauge Lucian's reaction, he didn't seem to care.

After a few more notes the exercise ended. She took a moment to soak in the looks she was getting from her captive audience.

"Whoa…" Janue said, mouth agape.

"So you weren't auto tuned in your album after all." Yang noted.

Weiss smiled. Then gave a small bow in appreciation.

"Well then," She clasped both hands together. "Who's ready to hear an actual song?"

Jaune face lit up even more if that was even possible. Yang gave a very excited nod, scrambling to get her Scroll out from her pocket to record.

She turned to the insomniac. "Lucian do you know any of my work?"

He shrugged "Kinda…"

"Come on I've heard you play from down the hall, I can guarantee you know Melody of Kings, it's a classic. The piano piece from that was simply beautiful, I even met the pianist himself."

Lucian closed the top board of the piano and stood up to leave. Barely giving her a parting glance.

"Sorry, but I think I'm done for today." His footsteps faded as he eventually left through the door, creating a moment of awkward silence.

 _Insufferable..._

Weiss shook off her annoyance and gave a quick cough in an effort to disrupt the mood.

"Right, his loss. Do you guys have any requests?"

And with that last comment Weiss spent the next hour taking requests and enduring the constant fangirling of Yang and Jaune.

»»» § »»»

Eir laid backwards on her bed, finally savouring the relief of a hard day's work. Not an honest day's work mind you. No, Eir had managed to finish her reports through a mixture of cheating, copying, and cramming them with so much bullshit just to hit the minimum word count. Almost immediately after finishing she promptly slipped into something more comfortable and jumped into bed. Some shorts and loose fitting tank top to be specific. Her mom would have killed her for dressing like that in this kind of company. At first she was a bit apprehensive about sleeping in the same room with a bunch of boys but she quickly got acclimatised to it. God knows they didn't care about what they were wearing anyway. When night called Wukong simply undressed and stuck to his boxer shorts, Neptune seemed to be wearing some sort of pajama bottoms and a stylish vest, And Lucian…

Well Lucian was fully dressed and ready for a night of doing…whatever he does in the moonlit hours.

"So I was thinking…" Sun started,

"Oh god here it comes." Neptune moaned, putting down the latest issue of X-ray and Vav.

"I was doing some scouting today-"

"You mean while you were trying to go on a date with Blake, and neglecting to tell me about it" Neptune interrupted

"That doesn't matter-"

"You said we were gonna chill at the movies! Do you know what it feels like to be the third wheel?"

"Shut it!" He shot, throwing a pillow at Neptune. "Anyway after a little recon around the city I was thinking about what happened last night, you know with the big robot and stuff?"

"How could we forget" Lucian said from the windowsill

"Well, I was wondering if things would have gone better if we weren't so divided, but maybe like in a smaller group or something? kinda like a…"

"Strike team?" Eir finished for him.

"Was gonna say unit but that sounds way cooler." He grinned "I figure that we should give things a go on our own"

"Didn't we already cause enough trouble in the city recently?" Lucian said "I mean we already did a little scouting around, all it seemed to do was make things more complicated."

"And there were more of us. What if we find more robots?" Neptune added.

"Yeah but the others weren't pro's like us. I mean we got two daring thieves, the quirky guy who knows the city, and a charismatic charmer. This is just like in the movies. Us four are like the perfect combo for this"

 _What movies have you been watching?_ Eir wondered

"Quirky?" Lucian frowned

"You know what I mean" He shook his head. "So whatdya say? You guys in?"

"Well…" Lucian sighed. "Would keep me entertained in contrast to the usual dicking around I do in the city…"

Eir shrugged her shoulders "Can't really say no considering I skipped out last time."

The three of them looked to Neptune.

"What? Like I've got a choice in the matter after a majority vote?" He sulked and crossed his arms for a moment. Neptune later turned around with a smile "Of course I'm coming. I've never missed a party."

"It's settled then," Sun nodded "we'll all meetup by beacons main avenue statue at six"

"But for now we sleep right?" Eir was quick to say

"Speak for yourselves" Lucian scoffed, walking toward the door and taking his leave.

"Remember it's at six" Sun said as he left "I know what your like! Also hit the lights"

"Yeah yeah." Lucian waved a hand and flicked the switch, leaving them with just the light of the corridor as he made his way out. "Night idiots." He closed the door behind him, now plunging the room into darkness save for the dim glow of the pale moonlight.

Eir snuggled down and waited for sleep to blessedly take her away. With any luck tomorrow would be better than today.

* * *

 _ **A/U:**_

 _ **If all goes to plan this should go up on the day of volume 4's first episode, and if that's the case: Choo Choo motherfuckers! The hype train has reached its final destination!**_

 _ **Also I am aware that isn't ordering my chapters properly. I'll find a work around eventually, in the meantime ignore the chapter list on the website and look at what I've actually labelled them on the page viewer.**_

 _ **Have a lovely day :)**_


	14. Chapter 13

_**A/N: Apologies for being dormant for a while. December bent me over a table and fucked me pretty hard.**_

 _ **As a way of saying thank you for being patient, this chapter breaks one of my rules and is now over 6k words. That's just half of what I have to write for my network concepts assignment! Haha!…haha…ha…**_

 _ ***finds corner and cries***_

* * *

 **Chapter 13**

 **You Me At Six**

Honestly, it was just amazing how much you could do during the early hours of the morning…

"Gonna kill those guys…" Lucian grumbled to no one in particular.

What amazed him more was the incompetence of his teammates.

Lucian continued his murmuring as he made his way through Beacons campus. Heading towards the main avenue statue as was agreed last night. A few students cast him weird looks as he stormed through the halls, though the insomniac couldn't care less. He had spent the entire morning waiting for his friends to show up, and when the sun had finally risen they were nowhere to be seen. Hell, it was just about to clock over to the evening! Trying to stay coherent in the morning was one thing. Finding his teammates in the expanse known as Beacon Academy was something else entirely.

In a show of sleep deprived ingenuity he had taken it upon himself to go into town at the crack of dawn. and while he could just remember through the haze, he had still completed his task without his idiot companions _and_ with no problems in fact. At this point Lucian couldn't work out why he even needed them in the first place.

He sighed as he continued onward the central plaza, tying to vent out some frustration. He wasn't angry. Well, he was _a little_ angry. Partly out the hassle of suffering through the morning…

Lucian reached into his pocket to grab a mint out of habit. Alas, the packet was still missing.

But mainly because Eir had stolen his mints again…

He huffed and quickened his pace, eventually turning a corner to step outside of the main building. Off in the distance he caught sight of Neptune's blue hair and Eir's almost neon like green highlights. Somewhere a barber was tearing their hair out.

"There they are..." He said to himself. A few teleports later and Lucian appeared in front of them in a flash and a glitter of particles.

The three of them instantly set upon him.

"Lucian! Where the hell were you?" Sun shot.

"Where was I? Where were you!" He pointed "You guys told me to wait here at six and none of you showed up. I spent the whole morning trying to find you guys and I don't even get a text!"

Eir scoffed from the side. "We waited for you like half a goddamn hour, you were never here! Hell, this is the first time we've even seen you toda–" She stopped mid rant, thinking on his words "Wait…The whole morning?"

"Yeah" Lucian simply responded

There was a pause. Then a collective groan "Oh for fucks sakes you thought we meant six _am,_ didn't you?" She said, facepalming.

"What? That wasn't the plan?" Lucian said simply, confused at the looks he was getting.

"No! Who in their right mind would wake up at six to go dicking about in the city?" Wukong added

The insomniac pointed to himself. "Uhh…"

"Unbelievable..." Neptune muttered

"Well excuse me! I was all ready to go do this but then you guys were nowhere to be found, I thought you went into the city without me!"

"No! We were asleep! Like _normal_ people!" Sun exclaimed

"Man, it's been hours. What the hell have you been doing all this time?" Neptune said.

"Well like I said, I thought you guys were in the city so I went looking for you. Long story short I came back into Beacon to find you idiots. Apparently you lot rated sleep over the safety of the people."

"Damn it Lucian, when people say wait here at six they mean six in the afternoon!" Eir said. Jabbing his arm

"Oh you say it likes it my fault? Miss unspecific." He turned on her "And give me my mints back!"

"Never!" She refused, taking out said mints from her pocket "This is your punishment for being an idiot!" And with that last comment she procced to pound the entire packet in one go.

"Hey!" Lucian tried to snatch them back with a swipe of his arm, annoyingly most of the packet was empty by the time he could steal them away. "Ugh you little…" He watched Eir's smug -hamster cheeked face- mock him with a triumphant expression. That didn't last long however.

Her eyes widened and her face quickly saw traces of immediate regret. With a cough the sweets exploded from her mouth and rattled down onto stone.

"Oh god that was a mistake" She gasped, sputtering and spitting out the remaining mints, exhaling sharply as if trying to expel the taste "It feels like I just gave Mr Frosty a blowjob!"

"Call that instant karma you thief!"

Wukong stepped in from the side. "Guys, focus."

"Karma?" She started, spitting out once last mint. "Your one to talk. You were drawing all over my face the other day!"

"Hey, it wasn't just me."

"Do you have any idea how long that stuff took to get off? If I'd rubbed any harder my face would've caved in!"

"Would have been an improvement over what it is now"

"Copper kettle black, panda eyes."

" _GUYS!_ " Wukong shouted this time

"What!?" They turned on the blonde. Finally earning his attention

"Off to a flying start…" Neptune muttered from the side.

"Look, Lucian." He said, stepping up to the insomniac "You being twelve hours early aside, did you at least find anything?" Wukong said

"Yeah," He turned his focus away from Eir and back onto the task at hand "turns out some cargo went missing at the industrial distract again. Long story short the whole situation's got White fang written all over it. Gonna be awhile before the police actually catch on to anything though"

"You know the way?"

He nodded

"Well let's go then"

And go they did.

»»»

"As a teacher once said to an apprentice artist, this looks sketchy as hell" Neptune said, taking in the not so grand sight of Vales oldest factory district. Despite the evening light the whole area just had a kind of gloom looming over it. Maybe a mixture of smog from the nearby power station? It seemed Vales industrial management committee wasn't so caring for air pollution levels in this end of town. Lucian had always done his best to avoid the area whenever he could. His lungs probably thanked him for that.

"I dunno, place has its charm I guess." Eir shrugged

"This is your idea of charm? Crack dealer's avenue? I think I see junkie central station just round the corner..." Lucian commented.

"Hey you know what I mean. Plenty of places to trade stuff, hide etc."

"You make it sound as if you've been here before."

She scratched behind a wolven ear "I've played more than a few games of Hide and Seek with the cop's around here, put it that way."

"Lovely" He simply said. Looking back to the dull sight. "Right, Let's get this started. I don't wanna be here any longer than we have to"

"Agreed" Neptune nodded.

Lucian began directing them to one of the many factories in the row. Just as the four made their first couple steps into the area the tone of a phone call interrupted their stride.

Wukong shuffled, taking his scroll out of his pocket with his tail "Hold on…". He gave the screen a quick scan "It's Ruby." He turned to the group. Unsure of what to do.

"Just hang up, we got shit to do." Eir said, eager to move on.

"Hey come on what if it's important?"

"Oh for—ugh, fine, whatever…"

With a few taps he accepted the call and put it on speaker phone. "Hey there Ruby, what's up?"

"Hey Sun," A cheery voice greeted "we were wondering if you guys wanted to do something today? Maybe head into town? Grab a bite to eat?"

"Uhh, that's a great idea Ruby but we're actually at a movie theatre right now." He bluffed.

"Ohh! that's a great idea, you guys wait there, we'll come with." Ruby said eagerly.

"Ah, sorry Ruby but the movies already starting, we gotta go, I'll text you later. You know, no scrolls in the movie's and everything"

"But-*beep*"

"Smooth" Neptune said flatly.

Sun awkwardly scratched his head and moved to join them.

"So how'd you figured it would be this place?" He asked while trotting up to Lucian

"Cargo that gets offloaded from the docks usually goes through processing here. Recently a batch of Dust and some other crap from Atlas dropped off the net the moment it arrived at this factory. Tracking orders went missing along with their shipments from what I heard." He said as they walked. "Everything's under lock and key but I figured with all of us here it wouldn't matter."

"So if we get in we might be able find out where these 'missing shipments' actually go?"

Lucian nodded

"Empathises on 'might' in that sentence." Neptune chimed in. "We don't even know what we're looking for really."

"Covert or not, someone's always keeping track of what they've nabbed or smuggled. No one's gonna remember every little thing in those crates without making a note somewhere." Eir argued, giving Lucian a nod. "We'll find something."

As they got closer the size of the building became more apparent. More of a complex than a simple warehouse factory, hence why Lucian had decided on taking the 'sketchy' back route. Place's like these had check points all over the place, but a lot neglected their back entryways as it expanded over the years. Though despite keeping up with the times the factory still followed the doom and gloom theme of its neighbours with its dull grey steel and aging brickwork.

"Sooo…." Sun began. Looking up at the building "How do we get in?"

"There should be a spot around the back. Half of the building is newly renovated but the older half should give us an entry somewhere." Lucian began rounding the corner of the old concrete monolith. Looking for an entrance of some kind.

"Huh. Your actually pretty good at this snooping thing," Eir commented as he scanned the joint "I thought I would have to deal with a bunch of amateurs on this plan"

"Hey, you can learn plenty of things during the midnight hours." He stopped at a small glass window of a maintenance door, giving it a tap. "Breaking an entry for example..."

Eir took a step forward "Hey, I wouldn't break that if I were you. it's probably alarmed or…"

Lucian teleported through the window, cutting her sentence short. Luckily the room was empty save for himself, the place probably hadn't seen a soul in ages judging by the dust. After fiddling with the other side of the door it eventually unlocked with a click. Lucian pushed it open and ushered them inside with a wave of his hand.

"Or…just do that, whatever." Eir trailed off and went in.

Lucian gave her a look "What? Did you think we were gonna use the vents or something? This isn't like the movies"

"Psh, yeah. That's dumb." Sun commented as they wandered in.

Eir seemed to slump her shoulders slightly at that comment.

After getting in it finally seemed like they were making headway. What was a back entrance now seemed to trail into the main sectors of the facility as they went in deeper. The tight corridors of old concrete now replaced by steel panelling and clean white hallways. Its walls lined with some sort of piping, cabling and a disturbing amount of health and safety stickers. A guy had to wonder how much hazard pay you could get working in a place like this. Lucian could of sworn he saw a decapitation warning as they walked.

"Well that went easier than expected." Neptune said, also taking note of the various hazard signs along the corridor.

"See what I mean? We're professionals," Sun said "I bet we can get this whole Torchwick mess sorted by the end of the day. Vale's gonna owe us big time after this. Maybe give us keys to the city like in all those movies"

"Do they actually do those?" Lucian asked

"Course they do. Maybe. I dunno actually..." Sun trailed off.

"If we had a key to the city this would go a lot easier" Neptune commented

"Yeah, but then where's the fun?" Eir smiled "Plus I'd be running amok with that thing."

"I don't think you understand" He said.

"What do you mean?" She frowned.

The four of them stopped. A large steely set of double doors between them and the next room.

"Ah…"

"Yeah…"

The entryway looked like it was used to let loading vehicles through, and was reinforced to endure the wear of tear of industrial work over its years. Stuff like this also doubled as a ram raiding deterrent. That meant brute force was out of the question.

"Don't suppose its unlocked?" Sun hoped.

Eir stepped up to it, giving its oversized handles a pull. The thing didn't move an inch. "No dice" she said, giving the door a once over. Her eyes eventually settled onto the mechanism in the center of one of the doors "At least there's a physical lock. Maybe we can fiddle with it?"

She had a point there. Luckily the lock was quite big, they had that at least. Though Lucian still didn't have the foggiest as to how they'd get through. "Should we look for a way round?" He said

Sun started walking up to the lock, a hand to his chin "Wait. I might have an idea…"

He turned his back on the door, pointing his butt towards the lock.

"The fuck are you doing?" Eir gave him a puzzled look, then noticed that the Faunus was poking his tail into the keyhole. "You've got to be kidding me…"

"Oh god not again…" Lucian facepalmed "Sun, what have I told you about sticking your tail into inappropriate places?"

Eir gave snicker from the side.

"Don't worry about it" He said, shimming around as his tail probed through the pins.

"I'm not the one who should be worried. You remember that vending machine back when we were kids? You were stuck for like half a day."

"Hey, say what you want but it worked all right in the end."

"Not only we were caught, we even had to call the fire department." Lucian continued "Honestly it's like you never know when to pull out"

"Pft!..." Eir started to giggle again.

Sun continued to work. And with one last shake of the hips the clasps along the side of the door snapped open. Sun removed his tail and pulled open one of the double doors. This time it moved without a problem.

The team leader smiled at the other three as they walked in "Professionals" He reaffirmed.

The next section of the facility was much different, perhaps a sort of an auxiliary loading bay judging by the sorted crates and shipping containers. The only problem was that this place was populated compared to the other rooms. You didn't have to be a Faunus to hear the voices mixed in with the sound of machinery. The four didn't walk so causally this time.

"Hey uh, lil' in the open here aren't we?" Eir was the first to speak up.

"Relax. Just pretend that you belong here." Sun said.

Despite his words the four started to quicken there pace slightly, heads on a swivel as they walked passed various important looking equipment. While turning a corner a group of hard hats could be seen unloading various goods out of some of the containers.

"Let's make this quick. Keep an eye open for another door" Sun said quietly.

They nodded. Picking a new direction. With anyluck they-

"Excuse me." A voice said from the side "Do you work here?"

The group immediately froze, then turned very slowly to find a woman standing a few paces away from the four. A clipboard in hand and a perplexed look on her face.

 _Here we go… Lucian braced himself._

She looked relatively young to be working here, maybe more of a clerk than a true factory worker? The lack of a hardhat seemed to emphasize that point.

"We, uh…" Sun faltered.

Neptune quickly pushed passed the three.

"We're apprentices from Beacon." He began. Stepping forward with confidence and pleasant smile "We got a little lost after taking our break, we're trying to make our way back to the main floor but we're still not used to getting around." He chuckled, scratching his head innocently, that smile never fading.

"I wasn't aware that we were taking apprentices." She said, eyeing the three behind him with more scepticism than Lucian was willing to admit.

"It's a new program, just rolled out this semester. After all the chaos in Vale I guess the city council wanted to put us huntsmen in training to good use. It takes us away from studies sure, but I'd say that's fair compromise if we have to keep an eye on gal's like you" He gave a wink as he said it.

She blushed slightly. Obviously single. "How did you end up here?" She said, trying to revert attention back to their situation

"I wish I knew. We have clearance, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten through that first door"

"Ah, well yes I suppose that makes sense…" The women tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, slightly embarrassed at her own question. She was either new to this job or totally falling for Neptune's traps. By the way she eyeing him up Lucian thought the latter.

"So uh, could you help a guy out? we need to get back to the main complex, otherwise we'll get in trouble."

"Well" She started, a finger tapping on her clipboard "It certainly wouldn't be safe to let you wander around on your own…"

"It'd be appreciated" He said, flashing her another model worthy smile.

"Please follow me" She turned before they could see her blush. The four followed suite as the women showed them the way. Neptune gave a thumbs up to his team before turning to catch up to the women, apparently eager to carry on talking with her.

Neptune kept making small talk as they walked. Every time she was about to recompose herself and ask a serious question the blue haired romantic interjected with another bad -but apparently successful- one liner.

 _Ah, keeping her flustered so she doesn't ask for ID or something. Fair play Neptune…_

They passed by other members of staff along the way but with this woman beside them the other workers didn't seem to pay much heed. Eventually they made it to their destination.

"This corridor will get you to A block, just follow the signs and you should be able to make your way back."

"Thank you" Neptune said "We'd best be off before our boss catches us.

"Say 'um," The women started "if you get turned around again, feel free to come on by…"

"I'll be sure to do that" He smiled, then turned to go on their merry way. Lucian didn't have to turn around to know that girl looked back at Neptune as they went off in the opposite direction.

"Two thieves, someone to scout things out, and a charismatic charmer…This is just how I planned!" Sun chuckled lightly to himself as soon as they got out of ear shot.

By some miracle, he was right.

"I just can't believe it." Eir said

"What? that we manged to bypass, like, half the complex in under five minutes?" Neptune responded

"No. I mean that your shitty brand of cheap one liners and flashy smiles actually worked on that girl."

"Aw you jealous? I'm still single if you want to go on a date later."

"No thanks, I wouldn't want to deprave the other girls of their chance to experience the hopeless romantic known as Neptune Vasilias"

"Oh, don't worry Eir, I'll always make time for you…" He put an arm around the wolf faunas, getting in close and giving her a wink. A wink that was swiftly returned with an elbow to the gut.

"Oh, I do like them feisty." He chuckled whilst rubbing his stomach.

She scoffed and distanced herself from him "Aside from Neptune's personality, you think we'll have any more problems?"

"Harsh…" Neptune said from behind.

"Nah, don't worry guys. From here on out its smooth…" Sun suddenly stopped. The three bumped into him from behind. A new door in front of them.

"…Sailing…" He trailed off.

"Oh come on!" Neptune exclaimed.

"Hmm, that's good security at least…" Lucian observed. This door was a bit more typical. Human sized with a standard electronic lock.

"Hmm, it's too tight to stick my end in" Sun said.

Eir giggled at that "Don't worry boys, the master is here." She started strutting forwards, twirling a key card between her fingers.

"Where'd you get that?" Neptune said.

"Stole it while you were making doughy eyes with that chick."

"Have you no shame I wonder?" Lucian smirked.

"Hey its only stealing if you get caught."

"And if you never get caught, you deserve everything you steal" Sun added.

"Amen to that brother"

They bumped fists as they passed each other. After a quick swipe of the key card the electronic lock beeped and popped open the door.

"Awesome." Sun nodded.

After tucking the key card back into her pocket Eir pulled out a familiar half crumpled blue packet.

"This calls for a victory mint" She said, popping one in her mouth and giving another one to Wukong

"Of for the love of- give those back!" Lucian immediately trotted up to Eir, wresting the packet form her grasp.

She simply handed him an empty packet "Sorry, fresh out." She teased, sharing a sly grin with Sun. The two Faunus chuckled and continued inside without their human counterparts.

Lucian sighed and shook his head. letting the empty packet flutter to the ground. The two were literally as thick as thieves at this point…

"Can't believe we have two of them now…" He grumbled to Neptune.

"You think we can take her back to Ozpin? Get a refund?" He said.

"Hey, come on idiots!" Eir called from ahead.

It was a tempting thought…

»»»

After getting through what seemed to be the hundredth door, the four made a detour to a quieter part of the factory. Eventually finding themselves at a suspiciously silent end of what should have been a busy processing station. The room they were in was dimly lit. its computers and network equipment shut off and its desks scarce of any paperwork. There were two doors, the entrance from the main corridor, and a second one that Sun was currently leaning against that lead into the main processing hub. A processing hub which they suspected was being used for 'some serious crime stuff' or so he had put it. This time they had decided to do some recon before they went into the next area, sending Eir off to do what she did best. Snoop and steal.

"Want to hear a dirty joke?" Neptune said from the corner of the room.

"All right." Sun nodded. They had been in this room for a while and things were starting to get pretty dull.

"What did the banana say to the vibrator?"

"Why are _you_ shaking? She's gonna eat me!" Sun finished for him

"Uh, Yeah. How did you…?"

"Eir already told me that one."

"Oh. hm, let me try another one then. Lucian, what's the difference between a lightbulb and pregnant lady?"

"You can unscrew the lightbulb." He said, supressing a yawn. "Yeah, she beat you there too."

"Damn." Neptune scratched his head "All right then. How is Eir like a laxative?"

"Go on." Sun encouraged.

"They both irritate the shit out of you."

They shared a chuckle "All right, that one's new." Lucian said.

"Hey she's not _that_ bad." Sun defended

"Not that bad? This one time I saw her going into the cafeteria to shake up unopened soda cans" Lucian said.

"Aw come on, who hasn't done that at least once." Sun mused.

"She was systematically going through them on by one." He continued "That entire cooler was sabotaged. I've never seen laundry day so busy"

The door squeaked open from the behind. Eir had come back from her little scouting mission. "Okay in my defence I was told that Wiess's favourite drink was grape soda. And it just so happens that it's a very popular choice" She started "Like how was I meant to know which can she'd pick? I had to shake all of them, otherwise I might've not got her at all!"

"And tag half the class in the process?" Lucian said as she wandered in.

"Collateral." She waved a hand

"Why Wiess specially?" Neptune wondered out loud.

"She always wears white. It's like she's asking for it."

"Fair point." Sun shrugged "Anyway how's it look out there?"

"Locked in on all sides, secluded for a processing point too. Didn't see any staff, hell I'd even say this part of the building is closed off. Aside from here I couldn't find any connecting rooms. If you wanted to keep something secret in this factory, then this place looks like your best bet."

Sun looked at his partners in crime and nodded "I'd say we found it."

He leant back from the door and turned on it. "Right then," he said, taking out a key card Eir had stolen for him earlier. Giving his friends a quick look before he opened the door "Everyone ready? No telling what's in there. Knowing our luck it'll probably be some of Romans henchmen or something."

They all nodded in unison.

Taking a breath Sun slid the key card through the device.

With a double beep the key card was rejected.

Suns shoulders slumped "Oh you've got to kidding me…"

He tried again. Once more the door responded with beeping and a big ol' Access denied screen

"I'm noticing a trend here" Neptune commented.

"Ugh, No one has a key on them this time?" Sun asked, hopeful.

The three shook their heads.

Lucian sighed, then pushed Eir forwards. "Well, come on little miss thief, work your magic."

"What the hell do you expect me to do?"

"Lock pick the thing. Come on I bet you even have the tools in that bag of yours." He said, tugging on the single shoulder sling of the bag.

"Just because I have noteworthy arrest record doesn't mean I know how to lock pick." She responded, pulling away from his grasp.

"Okay how about a pipe bomb? Some plastic explosive? you've probably nicked some stuff from Beacons armoury before we got here right?"

"Hey, I don't steal everything I see"

"Including my mints?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh lighten up Lucy, I'll buy you some more later"

"Actually, that explosive idea might work..." Neptune said from behind.

The other three turned, noticing a long silver bullet between his fingers. That was his high explosive 'just in case' round if Lucian could remember rightly. Had enough stopping power to rip clean through an Ursine. Or in this case, blow through a locked door.

"Not exactly subtle." Eir commented.

"We're not really known for subtle." Neptune said "Unless you wanna fetch a crowbar?"

She scoffed "Fine, do what you want."

"All in favour of brute force?" Sun said.

Once more they nodded.

"Screw it then. We're doing this the Team LENS way. Neptune, if you would be so kind…"

The ladykiller gave a smirk, pulling down his goggles and shouldering his rifle. With a pull of the trigger the rooms walls reverberated with a sharp bang. The lock imploded as the round pierced through it, blowing off the mechanism completely and taking half the door with it. Bits of wood, metal and smoked flooded into the next room.

"Jeez, can you us some warning next time? I have very sensitive ears" Eir said, sleeved hands held up to her wolven ears.

Neptune ignored her and the group carried on into the next room. As the smoke began to clear It was slowly becoming clear that this section of the factory was inhabited. A few grey silhouettes could be seen through the haze. Dressed in overalls and protective equipment.

"What is the meaning of this?!" One of the men shouted. Others coughing and waving hands in front of their faces as the smoke began to dissipate.

The four took a closer look at them, they weren't Romans henchmen, they weren't suspicious looking at all. In fact, they actually looked like factory workers…

 _Oh…crap…_

The realisation crashed down on them like a ton of bricks.

"Uh…" Neptune faltered, struggling for words "P-Pardon the intrusion, but um, we're- "

"Run for it!" Sun shouted

Run for it they did

»»»

Lucian had run from many things with Sun and Neptune over the years. Security guards, old ladies packing heat, angry ice-cream vendors, you name it. Running from the cops though? Well, that was getting old.

"Move it!" Eir yelled, still in full sprint ahead of the three.

Four sets of footsteps echoed through the backstreets of Vale. Sirens following a few blocks behind. They had managed to escape the factory but not without drawing some serious attention to themselves.

"Can we take a break!" Neptune panted, traces of sweet on his forehead "I haven't run like this since I broke up with Celeste, my legs are killing me!"

"I said move!" She shouted whilst leaping over a dumpster "I won't go back to prison!"

"Wait, what?"

"N-nothing" she stammered.

Turning the corner the group found themselves at themselves at a dead end, brick work on all sides save for where they had just come from. To double back would mean running into Vale's police department.

"Up there!" Sun pointed to a nearby fire escape. With any luck that would take them up to roof level and safely away from cops.

Eir was the first one to act, taking out one her sickles and forming it into a whip. Less than a moment later she flung its tail forwards to catch a nearby railing. With a pull, she thrust herself up towards it. Sun and Lucian also took action. Sun by jumping from wall to wall and eventually vaulting onto new footing. Lucian by teleporting and swiftly clambering up.

That just left Neptune.

"Hey! What about-"

Lucian rolled his eyes, teleporting back down and then taking his companion back up with a return trip.

"-Me!" Neptune shouted, then blinked as he realised what had happened "oh uh, thanks." He muttered, still a bit winded.

"Don't mention it." Lucian said, beginning to work his way up the fire escape. After a short while all four of them found themselves safety at the top. With Vale's finest lost at the bottom, taking a new route somewhere off in the distance.

"You know what..." Neptune panted, making it to the last step and slouching over a railing "…maybe, maybe we should try subtly next time?"

"Ya think?" Eir said with a mixture of sarcasm and exasperation. Watching Neptune's chest rise and fall like the SDC stock market "Jeez dude, when was the last time you went to the gym?"

"Yesterday!" He shot, undoing a button on his jacket.

"Bullshit, you were in there for five minutes' tops. You turned up, took some selfies next to the Dumbbells, then you left." Lucian chimed in.

"Guys…" Sun said.

"Hey it's the thought that counts! Besides, all the ladies say my biceps look great"

"Oh please, I've eaten discount chicken wings with more meat on their bones than you." Eir said.

"Guys!" Sun yelled.

"What?!" They shouted in unison. Turning to face him.

Sun waved for them to come over and inspect something over the edge of the building. After shuffling forward they found the source of his concern.

"There" Sun pointed to down a collection of vans in a dimly lit car park. Though these weren't any random vans, these ones were old bangers, graffitied to all hell and missing registration plates. A few of them had doors open, showing that the interiors were filled to the brim with all kinds of firearms and ammunition. Creating an almost a picturesque crime scene compared to what they had just run from. The owners for all this hardware obviously must have had something big in mind.

"What the hell is this? Some sort of weapons stockpile?" Neptune commented, wiping off some sweat with the back of his glove.

"A big one." Eir observed.

"White fang big?" Lucian said.

"White fang big." Sun nodded

There was a short pause. This stuff was some serious kit, the equipment cost alone would probably amount high enough to buy out a small company. Question was, what to do with this discovery.

"Should we get the police to impound them or something?" Lucian asked.

"In my experience hardware like this eventually finds its way back to the crooks who had them in the first place." Eir said, looking thoughtful "It's probably best if we just destroy em"

"Okay then. Let's get to it." Lucian simply said

"Hate to tell you this but I only brought the one explosive round." Neptune spoke up.

"Won't matter." Lucian said, stepping up to the buildings lip and scanning the area. He couldn't see anyone down there. Good.

"Maybe we could grab some gear from one of the trucks?" Eir wondered.

Lucian ignored her and took out his two swords, slapping both spines together and forming his two hander.

Eir cocked an eyebrow "How is that gonna…"

With one hand clutching at two sliver triggers on the handle and the other pulling back on one side of the cross guard, the core of the weapon reverberated with activity. a series of metallic clicks followed as the entire cross guard folded into a lever like handle or a type of Ring hilt. at the same time the two sides of the double-edged sword parted from the center slightly to create empty space in between the two blades. Each blade segment slid back on themselves to shorten down to half its original size. The handle of the weapon also shifted, a secondary chamber then travelling upwards inside of it past the hilt and slotting into the empty space in between the two parted sections, finally forming a mortar tube.

Lucian took a mortar from the inside of his hoodie, more specially the HM Vulcan that was sure to light this powder keg.

"It's a bit close..." He muttered, testing the wind and slotting the round into the chamber. He pulled further on ring hilt, loading the round with a clink and driving each segment of blade further back as it built up pressure. Lucian lifted the weapon over his shoulder then turned around, the end of it facing skyward behind him but toward the vans. He pivoted the weapon against his shoulder as he guesstimated where to fire. One hand still holding fast to the ring hilt to hold the weapon steady, the other on its handle with a firm hold on the trigger system.

After vaguely figuring out a trajectory, he looked at Sun for guidance.

"Hm…Left a bit." The Faunus noted.

Lucian adjusted, then fired. A burst of air setting the round on its trajectory.

A whistle preceded to follow shortly after the round made its descent, dooming its targets as the tone grew in pitch. A "Whump" Sound and the screech of folding steel signaled that the round had blown clean through the roof of the van. A fiery inferno burst out of the vans doors and windows almost immediately after. Each item of ammunition inside the vehicle only added to the magnitude of the explosion. The surrounding vehicles took some flak as result, and slowly but surely they also started catching alight as the rounds inside cooked off.

What followed was a series of explosions as each vehicle turned into a pillar of fire and smoke. Every boom reverberating through the city streets and setting off nearby car alarms. If the police didn't know where they were, they certainly did now.

The sight was nothing short of pure carnage. Lucian smiled, the ground pounder had done its work nicely.

"Ahh" Neptune basked, making a snapshot motion with his fingers "Just like in the movies"

Eir stumbled forward, taken aback at the scene in front of her. "So…those things I found in your hoodie…they…they were mortars?"

"Yep." he said, glancing back at the explosion.

"And you just…blind fired one?"

"With some help" Sun added.

"Yep" Lucian repeated

"But…why?"

Neptune stepped up from the side "Lucian can't aim worth a damn, so we came up with this method instead."

"So what do you do when there's no one else around?" She said to the insomniac

He reset his weapon and yawned "Hope for the best really."

The sets of sirens they thought they escaped started to get closer again.

"Soooo, about that talk of subtly?" Neptune joked.

"Yeah…we should probably get moving again." Sun said, nonchalantly leaping off the roofs lip as he made his way to a new alleyway.

After a moment of trepidation from Neptune, the three-followed suite. Carefully stepping through the back alleys as they made their way to someplace quieter. While navigating through this brickwork maze Lucian couldn't help but notice footsteps from behind. Not theirs, but someone alien. After a minute or two that 'someone' had brought friends.

He didn't turn around to check, odds were Sun and Eir had noticed them too. They picked up the pace while trying to find the exit to this part of the street, eager to escape from the cops and whoever these new guys were. But as they turned a corner a group stood at the end of the way. Rough looking and with well-worn clothing on their backs, almost a uniform considering their theme of leather jackets or pants. Bit cliché, but who was Lucian to judge someone appearance.

The shady bunch all turned around, at least a dozen of them sneering at the four as if considering a challenge. The footsteps from earlier stopped a few paces behind them. It didn't take a genius to see that these guys meant trouble.

Lucian nodded to the group in front of them "You lads need something?"

One figure figuratively and literally stood out from the rest. A patchwork black leather vest on his chest and a spikey blue Mohawk on his head. The guy had about as many piercings in his face as he had followers by the looks of things.

"You could say that." The mohawk said. He gestured to the plume of smoke behind the four "What was all that about?"

"Some bloke forgot to take the nozzle out of his car, station went up in flames"

"Funny" he said flatly, not looking the least bit amused. "Who are you clowns? Some kinda huntsmen in training?"

"What's it to you" Eir answered

He gave a dry laugh and looked to his posy, they returned with a murmur of scoffs and thinly veiled gibes at the four "This is our end of town. And you're making a lot of noise, causing a lot of heat." He spat down at the ground. "Shit like that's bad for business, shit like you."

"So, can we leave?" Sun stepped up "Or are we gonna have to make even more noise for you?"

Another murmur sounded from the gang, a few stepped forward. Eager for a fight.

"Oh no. You fuckers aint going anywhere." The mohawk also took a step forward, taking a steel bat from one of his goons "But you are right, your gonna make a lot more noise when were through with you…"

The Mohawk pointed the end of the bat towards the four.

"Have em boys!"

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **I'm not happy with the explanation for that mortar transformation. But for the sake of cranking out a chapter before Christmas it's in there anyway. For better or worse.**_

 _ **Originally this part of the story was going to be a two parter again. But after having a quick looksee at my word count (over 13k) I realised that I might as well just make three chapters out of it. Annoyingly this has made my hiatus hit a little harder because I've actually got quite a lot to sort through .**_

 _ **Expect to see another two (or more) chapters at the start of the new year. I had hoped to have done an Xmas special too, but that deadline has long since passed. Plus with what I've pre written for it I'm not sure it would even make sense given the current progress of the story. Maybe an out of place Christmas episode is in order somewhere in the future? who knows?**_

 _ **Anyways, I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas and what not. May your driveway be cleansed of snow, and may your stocking be filled with undercooked diamonds.**_


	15. Chapter 14

_**A/N:**_

 _ **You guys ever look at birds and think;**_

 _ **Man, I would love to fly about and shit on things I don't like…**_

 _ **...Or is that just me?**_

 _ **...**_

* * *

 **Chapter 14**

 **This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us**

"Lennie!" The mohawk shouted, pushing forward a hulking behemoth of a man as the rest of the pack rushed forwards "Take panda eye's, we'll get the others."

Lucian raised an eyebrow. "Panda eyes...?"

Maybe Eir's earlier remark was less of an insult and more of an observation…

He stifled another yawn and drew his blades out as the man approached. A bit dopey looking compared to the others, but what he was lacking in intelligence he made up for in muscle. Other gang members had already spread out and surrounded them, forming a crude circle and goading the bigger member to fight. The rest simply focused their attention on Lucians friends. Not that he had any worries of course.

The brute smiled as he raised his weapon high. Not a bat, like the others, but an uprooted stop sign of all things. A swing and a miss marked the start of their fight. Lucian set his weapon into its spear form as he ducked out of the way. Careful to weave in between his opponents follow ups. He was big, but annoyingly nimble with that thing.

 _Really don't have the energy to deal with that today…_ Lucian thought as he moved.

That being said. He didn't have the energy _most days…_

Unconcerned by the thugs failing swings, Lucian waited for a lull in the fight, only to try his luck as the behemoth halted his assault to take a breath.

"Behind you!" Lucian shouted, pointing behind his foe.

"Right." The thug scoffed "I might be dumb, but I'm not falling fo-"

In a flash of light and a hollow crack of metal on skull the burly man dropped into the dirt. The cold steel shaft of Lucian's weapon proving more effective than any sleeping pill.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." Lucian muttered from behind the unconscious form, turning to face the crowd around him.

The motley crew shared looks of disappointment as their little bit of entertainment ended prematurely. Though they were quick to voice that disappointment with curse words and improvised weapons.

They came at him in pairs of two or three, still surrounding him, but not willing to rush him. That was a mistake. The insomniac charged the first group as they approached. Lunging at one man with the spearhead then striking a second with the shaft. Twirling as he went into a basic weapon exercise. Between the reach of his weapon and the confines of this alleyway they stood very little chance. Lucian only sought to maim them. If the big one hadn't had his aura unlocked, then neither would these chumps.

One after the other they came at him and one after the other they fell. Lucian felt the satisfying thumps traveling up through his weapon as he went about his work, however he couldn't help but let his mind wander – as it often did – between blows. Seemed like forever since he got into a brawl alongside Neptune and Wukong. And having Eir along for the ride would spice things up too. If he was brutally honest Lucian still wasn't quite sure what to make of her quite yet.

His mind slowly crept back to the action as gang numbers dwindled. Eventually ending this little skirmish by sending the last man flying into a brick wall.

Contented, Lucian settled the butt of his spear to the ground as he glanced at the heaps his feet. Each one moaning and mumbling curses as they writhed in pain. He could've sworn the big one was mumbling something about rabbits…

He shook his head. Looking around to find a new fight. It looked like Wukong had charged into the main pack of them and forced them out to an exit, leading to some kind of square from what he could tell. Lucian left him to it, trying to combat Sun's rampage at this point would be like pissing into a wind tunnel anyway.

A series of bangs sounded out from another route behind him. He recognized the tones as Neptune's rifle. Lucian turned and made his way over, stepping over several groaning forms as he did so.

It didn't take too long to find him. Neptune had taken up stock at the entrance of a side alley, firing pot shots at those who probably thought of themselves as back up. The smoking holes in their leatherjackets seemed to argue otherwise. Lucian dropped a thug who was attempting to sneak up on Neptune as he approached. He nodded to him as the blue haired idiot looked over his shoulder.

"Having fun?" Lucian asked.

Neptune smiled, cracking of another round without turning to see his mark. "You know it"

Lucian returned the smile and levelled his spear as more thugs came at them. Those that managed to get past the firing line were taken out by Lucians spear. Just like the old days.

Over time more and more starting pouring out from the neighbouring alleys. Filtering into what was a essentially a cramped choke point. Soon there were more than Neptune had rounds to put into. He quickly abandoned his shooting and switched to his guandao. Taking up a similar defensive posture next to Lucian. Despite the numbers, they didn't feel too threatened. This was by no means their first backstreet coffufle, and it certainly wasn't going to be their last.

A spirited thug in the crowd stepped forwards from the horde and waggled a lead pipe in front of the pair.

"Gonna take your asses to the morgue!" he barked.

"Ah, but you won't be taking us anywhere." Neptune began with a grin. "Let my friend here enlighten you"

He gestured towards Lucian.

The insomniac proceeded to look at him blankly.

"Ahem?"

"What?" Lucian frowned

" _Enlighten_ them!"

"Uh, all right. umm, I think you guys have the potential to be very good people and uhh you look very nice this evening…your taste in vintage leather jackets is…Bold?"

"No, I mean blind them!"

"Oh right. Why didn't you just say that then?"

"I was trying to sound cool. Okay?" He admitted.

"Right..." Lucian paused, pondering. "You know, it would have been better if you said something like 'light 'em up' instead"

Neptune sighed "We need to work on this when we get home."

"Agreed" Lucian said, raising a hand and flooding the alley with a violent white light.

»»» § »»»

Shoulder first, Eir charged the man into the wall. As he staggered from the impact she immediately disengaged and turned to take a few swipes at her second attacker. Always staying mobile, always staying unpredictable.

 _If I knew enrolling in Beacon was going to get me into another gang war…_

Spinning, she threw her sickles wide and managed to snag her third and final target. His flanking attempt failed as the tip of her weapon bit cruelly into the back of his palm.

 _I would've auctioned my ass to Junior this year!_

Eir twisted her weapon and the man dropped his own with a yelp. She used this painful little bind to her advantage and yanked him around to stand in the way of his buddies, his back turned to them and completely at the mercy of Eir's bladed ministrations.

Oddly enough this moment made her think an old medical journal she kept. People didn't seem to realize how many nerve endings there were in a person's hand. Though judging by the man's cries he probably had a fair idea of that now.

She let the bind go and kicked him towards his friends. The action toppling two of them but not the last. The quicker of the two began to rush Eir with a brass knuckle. She dropped low, dodging an overhead strike. Here, Eir performed one of the most sacred techniques of the urban jungle…

A swift kick to the balls.

A thud, and another cry found the space of the alleyway. This one a little higher in pitch.

He dropped to the ground with both hands cradling his man plums. At the same time his companion got up from the floor. A trail of blood on the ground marked that the other had run off and abandoned the fight. Pussy.

The last one began to swing at Eir with an old nightstick. She backed off and tested the grip of her sickles. He came in with a swing, Eir caught it between the curvature of one sickle and brought the other down into his shoulder. With a pull, she hurled herself upwards knee first into the man's jaw, following through with a good 'ol' throttling for good measure. Eir wasn't out to kill anyone, but a few broken bones and teeth would be fine.

As her opponent realised blacking out was the best option, he eventually turned still and collapsed to the ground.

Eir wiped her brow, turning to find that the one she had kicked in the balls had also ran off. She smirked as she glanced down at her handy work. Of course her show of bad-assery would have sent them running…

She took a long and contented sigh and began to turn a corner down to the main alley. Eir wasn't used to operating as a team, but she was sure she made the right decision by protecting the flank. That should give them some relief-

Oh…

Eir stopped in her tracks, eyes descending on a litter of groaning bodies. Some dozen or so gangers cursing and writhing after having their asses thoroughly handed to them. Pretty much dwarfing her efforts by comparison.

She huffed. Well at least-

A small rustle of motion set her instincts off like a flare gun. Instinctively Eir brought her sickles up to her head. A weight crashed against them less than a second later, her weapons barely managing to take the impact as she was slammed against the wall. Her vision flashed slightly, eyes just about able to catch a glimpse of a metal sports bat flying toward her.

She was forced to block once again, her sickles screeching as metal collided. Instead of a trying for another hit her attacker drove the bat further, sickles now grinding in protest. She tried to push it away but found herself unable to shift against her opponent's weight. The thug -the one she had kicked in the jewels- pressed harder, two hands steadying his weapon and pushing her deeper into the brick wall behind.

"I eat shit like you for breakfast!" he growled as Eir struggled against his strength

"You eat shit for breakfast?" Eir responded with smirk despite the strain.

With a clink, one sickle collapsed and wrapped around the thug's weapon and hand. Eir twisted as her block failed, sliding sideways against the wall and pulling as he pushed. The motion sent the man into a small spin causing him to stumble. Whilst still in the whips grasp, Eir used its elasticity to her advantage and gave a hefty pull using all her weight. The wiring lengthened, only to recoil under the tension and send the man flying toward her. Eir followed through, turning to sidestep and simultaneously release him as he was flung down the street. His body crashing and rolling onto the cold concrete below not long after.

With some distance achieved, Eir put her sickles- err, wickless? Whatever. She put her weapons into its crossbow form, raising an arm to take her shot, planning to pin his clothing to the ground like in all those action movies…

Only to miss. Shattering the perfect picture she imagined into little pieces.

The bolt gave an audible 'ping' as it bounced clean off the cobbles. She cursed under her breath. And it had been going so well...

 _At least no one was watching…_

Or so she thought.

A bullet whizzed past Eir and took the thug in the chest as he tried to get up.

"And I thought I was bad at aiming." Lucian commented, coming up from behind along with Neptune.

She rolled her eyes "That was my bad, so I'll let that comment fly..."

"Bit like that crossbow bolt eh?" He quipped

"Shut it."

He chuckled as walked off to find another fight. Neptune raised an eyebrow as Eir reset her weapon "Best shot in team LENS?"

"I said shut it!" she snapped

He gave another shit eating grin before moving off to join Lucian. After some more not so silent cursing Eir did the same. Eventually finding herself at the mouth of an abandoned square. Another graffitied mess, but with one, somewhat familiar viper fang logo being the hallmark of this dump. Tunnel snake's territory, she mused as she approached. Last time Eir checked those were smaller fish back in the day. Guess times really were changing.

Before she could catch up the three where already in the action. Sun was taking on the main bulk of the mass, wide swings of his staff sent the street rats flying, others bore bruises and twisted looks of pain where they had tried and failed. Sun didn't seem to care that he was outnumbered. Actually, it looked like he was having a hell of a lot of fun.

 _Looks like those abs just weren't for show_ _after all_ Eir thought, as she took a moment to enjoy the action in front of her.

She watched on as the faunas continued to wade through enemy after enemy. From the side lines Eir could also see that Lucy and Hopeless were pushing the more cautions gangers inwards, and towards Wukongs now full flowing kata.

"Lucian! Catch!" Neptune shouted, flicking his guandao upwards in a powerful vertical strike, and catapulting one of the bigger enemy's towards his teammate. In a literal flash Lucian stood ready at the opposite side of the square. His weapon primed and in its mortar mode. Just before the ganger collided with Lucian the insomniac fired a solid burst of air towards his foe, sending him flying once more.

"Heads up Sun!" He shouted

Wukong too, stood ready. Staff held prepared as the enemy hurtled through the air at break neck speed directly towards him. The faunas went into a winding motion, said staff becoming a blur as it span. The moment the thug came into range he was dealt skull crushing blow. The hit producing a satisfying crack as it rang out across the entire square.

Eir caught the sound of cursing amongst the chaos. Not hers this time. She searched until she found the familiar figure of a blue mohawk swearing beneath his breath from behind a dumpster. Shying away from the fight as all gang leaders tended to do when shit hit the fan. She smirked. The boys could have their fun with the fodder. Eir had her sights set on bigger fish.

She shied away from the centre, instead sticking to the perimeter of the square and slowly working her way around to the back of where the gang leader was hiding. Mindful to stick to the shadows as she made her way to his flank.

Eir uncoiled a serrated whip as she moved. If she could snatch him and hold him captive the fight would end here and now. Considering their losses these guys were in no position to go guns blazing and free their leader. Hell, if she was lucky maybe Eir could even get a bounty out of him.

She smiled to herself. Now was her time to shine.

She got into position, winding then flinging her whip toward her target.

A flash.

Lucian suddenly appeared before the man as her weapon whistled though the air. a swear escaped his mouth as it took him in the back, the whip later coiling around him and grinding his pre-emptive attack to a halt.

The gang leader immediately stood up and span around, finding two fledging huntsmen looking like complete idiots.

Lucian grunted and craned his neck to turn to Eir "Oi, watch what you're doing." He shot.

"Hey, that was your fault!" She argued, but still feeling like an ass.

The leader sneered then spat down at the ground at the scene in front of him. "Chelsea!" The mohawk called, a moment later a girl appeared from the crowd. Redheaded with a serrated dagger in hand.

The gang leader pointed to Eir and gave the newcomer a three-word objective.

"Fuck her up!"

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _ **This section I've planned just keeps getting longer -_-**_

 _ **What doesn't help either is that I'm kinda writing this like a novel, and therefore this is feeling waaaay more long winded than I thought it would as I started. The idea behind this fic was to actually practice writing in the first place for a novel I'm planning, hence the FF's current writing style.**_

 _ **Also, I took a gander at my earlier chapters and couldn't help but vomit a little in my mouth. I'm half tempted to do a minor rewrite.**_ _**Nothing major, Just fixing little mistakes and adding bits to make things smoother. I'm still learning things as I go, and I guess after publishing a few chaps and looking back I can now see how my writing's improved over the course of this story.**_


End file.
